Sleepless Detergent

So it never bodes well when one cannot fall asleep. Of course, when one is using one's mutant power (reading ridiculous amounts of literature. Currently devouring Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series), this can happen. So, with that being said, I will now work on a post I promised my wife awhile ago.

So, a few weeks ago (Or a month and a half, who's actually counting here?), my wife sent me a "science experiment" to do with Chaos. We do these on occasion, similar to the previous one you saw of the homemade suet (which has been completely eaten, and did not melt. Granted, we got the good suet feeder with the little roof on it and the feeder is on an overhang that keeps most of the weather off. Still, good stuff there), along with trying to sprout avocado seeds, the bird watching (short update: while at a National Park at the New River Gorge, Chaos correctly identified a Red Bellied Woodpecker by sight. Yep, proud moment there), and etc. Basically, if you can get the kid interested, rock it. Now, as I've been all tangential to this point, the science experiment: Make Laundry Detergent. The recipe can be found here.

Now, to be honest, this is not a "take a picture" kind of experiment. You have to move fast so you can get it all split up. As you can see, I did it a little differently than the lady in the article said to do it, but it worked for us. We literally just ran out of this stuff a couple days ago, and will soon be making more.

In the above image, you get the idea of how much laundry detergent I made. I did this with an open mixing bowl, so I had to play with it a bit. I had to figure out how much water I was missing for cold in measuring terms and add that. Then it just fit nicely into 4 quarts (because that's a gallon, duh). It actually fit well into the quart bottles we had. We did add some essential oil to the mixture after it had cooled off (as putting it in hot water can damage the effectiveness of the oil). The specific oil used was OnGuard by doTERRA. I think we added like 2-3 drops per quart.

Now, this was fun, easy, time consuming, and functional. If I could ever get Havoc to wake up at a decent time and then take a morning nap again, this might happen. If not, well, it might be an after they go to bed kind of thing.

All that said, there's more news and notes coming from our trip to Dallas-Ft. Worth, and our recent addiction to Penny Smashing.

A DC Reminiscence

So, we went to DC a few weeks ago. Its been crazy since getting back, so I'm calling Wordsworth's “emotion collected in tranquility” to write this and thereby justify the delay. Also, name update, I have tired of using a numbering system, so Son #1 is now Chaos, and Son #2 is Havoc. Yes, those names fit them.

As with any trip to DC, the “what to see?” question weighs heavily. Our trip included the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, The National Zoo, The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, The Mall including walking by the Washington Monument, through the WWII Monument, by the Reflecting Pool, viewing the Lincoln Memorial, passing along the Vietnam Memorial Wall, and then to the North Lawn of the White House. Along the way there was also a tent museum of classic cars from “failed” brands. All that in three days. Whirlwind seems the best word.

Now, the moment to talk about. How do you explain to a 4 year old all that he just experienced (especially when he seems most excited about his most recently mashed penny)? You cannot. So, you have to have a moment where he gets it, where he sees how important you see it, where he sees your passion. Chaos and I shared that at the WWII Memorial. I have wanted to go to this since it opened. I have a long history in my own life of appreciation for that war. I grew up going to WWII themed air shows, seeing those who knew the history best slowly die out, knowing some of what my grandfather went through in his service for that war, and hoping that somehow we could preserve as much of the truth as possible. So, as I knelt by the stone etched with “NORMANDY”, thankful for the sunglasses hiding my ever-moistening eyes, I called him over to me. He knew I was having some issues, and so he went from 1000 mph to right there with me in the moment. I told him about his great-grandfather, as abbreviated as possible. The Big Red One, North Africa, Sicily, and then back to Normandy. Then, as we stood and walked toward the back of the Memorial, we saw an Honor Flight. I knew Chaos had to at least thank one of them. We walked to one in a wheel chair, and he seemed to struggle with it as much as I did. Where I really struggled was the Veteran with the hat that said, “World War II, Korea, Vietnam”. When Chaos thanked him, this Veteran, this Man, this Hero for serving for three conflicts, said, “You're welcome for whatever, I'm sure”. This man's daughter saw and got a picture, and then as we walked away I saw something that surprised me. It was a group of teenagers sight seeing, but who made sure to shake hands and thank these men.

Will Chaos remember those moments. I don't know, but I can hope. I had another moment that he didn't hear, when a woman at the point of the Vietnam Memorial was leafing through one of the books of where the names are and I overheard her say, “I had a crush on him in high school”. That struck me in a way I cannot completely explain, mostly because of its unexpected nature.

And so, surprised more than once, I hope that he begins to see it. I hope he begins to feel the history, feel the connection with these people past. He's 4, the age I went to my first air show in Hamilton, Ontario. Their Lancaster had not been completed, but I remember walking by it in buffed steel, and wondering at its size. I did not understand its historic place then, but I do now (If you're unaware, for starters, look up a movie entitled “The Dam Busters”, and go from there). I hope I'm starting him so that he has the grounding he needs so that he can be surprised, and celebrate the surprise of other of other people's experiences that coalesce into these United States in her best lights.

Lessons Learned on a Whirlwind Tour Two Day Vacay in the Mountains

So, snippets from a whirlwind weekend trip to the mountains:

1. Proud Dad Moments:
A. When hanging out in the Songbird Garden at the Western North Carolina Nature Center, #1 Son knocked out almost every bird he should have known from the pictures (even as faded as they were), and then pointed one out in the garden that he has only seen once here and in a picture @ the Nature Center, thus massively impressing his Grammy.

B.He further impressed said Grammy (and his mom), when he correctly identified the cedar wood hunks that were worn and played with via smell.

2. Awesome People Moment: While walking through Asheville to eat dinner with my in-laws, a street musician gave Keenan a balloon sculpture. It doesn't sound like much, but let me lay it out for you. Dude with a sweet individual style (cowboy-ish hat with a coontail tied on it, Justin workboots, skinny jeans, untucked flannel shirt, dreds, and a banjo slung over his shoulder walking with the girl carrying a guitar case and a mandolin on her back), is walking along with awesome balloon sculpture (red balloon making the flower, green balloon for the stem and leaves, and then a pink balloon for some critter hanging on said stem). My son's reaction evidenced how awesome he thought that balloon sculpture was, and without being asked, street musician dude with sweet indie style gave the oldest said balloon sculpture. And I quote to the best of my ability what I heard him say to the girl as they walked away, "You should have seen his eyes light up when he saw it, and I just knew he had to have it."

And now the reflection. For #1, I taught the boy that stuff, so that was pretty awesome as a dad and a teacher. That and hearing him talk to people about the animals because he actually knew what he was talking about. He is listening, he does understand, and I'm not just wasting my breath. For #2, as a Christian, do I evidence a life that gives like that, or am I owned by that which I own? No idea what faith the guy practiced if any, but he sure gets the selfless love that Christians spend so much time talking about. When was the last time you gave away the most awesome balloon sculpture you'd ever owned? I never have, so now I'm pondering how that concept becomes an accomplish-able goal.

Homemade Suet

So, sadly, I have been remiss in mine duties to update mine blog, sorry about that. With teaching, the crazy weather, and the side effects of the crazy weather, life has been a little hectic. Maybe I'll post a pic of the piles and piles of wood I'm piling under my deck for perspective on another project that has had be distracting me from blogging.

Anywho, one project I did finally get done with Keenan was making our own suet cakes. As you know, we loves the birds, LOOOOOVES the birds (or in Teague's words, "BUUHHHHDD!!!"). So, naturally, if one loves something, one thinks of ways to further enjoy it, that's just logic. I had been pondering how to make this happen for awhile, and finally struck on the idea after doing some cooking. So, follow the flow, and make your own, oh adventurous SAHP (Stay At Home Parents) friends of mine.

First, you need the fat. I got mine from roasting bones for bone broth. You can get chunks of suet from a butcher and render them if you desire (or just cheat and put the chunks in the feeder which works just as well, but only in colder weather), but we do the bone broth because we get multiple things as a result of our efforts. As a side note, you can also use the fat you get from roasting bones to cook with like bacon grease, makes for a very beefy flavor. Links for bone broth (this still works for beef bones, but yes, I have gotten it to work for venison bones as well), and rendering tallow.

Now, once I got the fat from the bones, I had it set aside in a covered glass container in the fridge. It keeps FOREVER like that, so I was down with it. After I got that out and let the whole thing go to room temperature, I pulled out my blender and proceeded to process down some field corn that was leftover from deer season, and then two varieties of pumpkin seeds that we haven't eaten as much of as we should, and don't want to waste. Once I had the ground corn and pumpkin seeds in their separate containers ready to be used, I popped the fat in the microwave and melted it. Then, alternating between pumpkin seeds and corn, I slowly layered fat and cracked/processed corn/seeds until it was pretty full. When layering, realize that the cracked/blended seeds will soak up some fat in the process, so make sure to have a fork or spoon around to spread it around. I put some of the smaller pumpkin seeds on top completely whole just for aesthetics, and that was it. It then went into the freezer where I let it set. I did make sure once it looked pretty solid to run a knife around the edge to make sure it would pop out when I was done. See the pictures for the final product and a bit of the process.

Interestingly enough, the birds did not immediately start eating it, they stayed pretty focused on the store bought cakes and chunks of actual beef suet we had out there. However, yesterday, I saw a Red-Bellied Woodpecker going to town on it, so that was cool. I do not have a picture of any birds as they won't stay still long enough because our suet feeder is uber close to the window and we freak them out regularly. However, if you need a 20 minute project and you have the right things around for it, it is really fun, especially if the little hands help you sift through the corn to make sure the hunks that are too big for the birds to eat get sifted out and put back to get ground up some more. Let me know if you try it.

I also realize that most of my posts have something more than just a how to in them, and if you haven't noticed yet that I'm learning how to do this on a daily basis, you aren't reading closely enough. So let me say this, if this isn't your idea of fun, cool. I always hate reading stuff that makes me feel like a bad parent because I don't think I can handle the particular amazing activity idea some child-rearing guru just posted. Honestly, if you don't want to do something with your kid, then don't. This particular activity I'm posting does take some preparation, and some rather specific ingredients. This isn't the only thing I've seen that has those types of components of specificity and preparation. Some people are set up to do stuff, and some people aren't. If you have to change your entire lifestyle to do some activity with your kids, well, I hope that was a change in lifestyle you planned to do in the first place. There's my "deeper meaning", don't change who you are with your kids because some pretty instagram nonsense told you to.

Note: I don't have pretty instagram pictures, so you should totally find me more sincere and do my activity :)

Inheritance

So, it hit me today, what do I want my kids to inherit from me? What is it they'll take off into the future after they leave me?

Well, for starters, today we enjoyed every selection from the Time-Life "Baroque" collection on vinyl. It was a gift from my uncle, who recently gave us quite a few records out of his collection, mostly classical, but also mostly collections from Time Life and Reader's Digest. Last week, we listened to a Readers Digest Collection of Nat King Cole. Best part? Opening it. Yeah, it arrived unopened. I had grown up listening to the same collection that my mother owned, so it was like hearing an old friend. However, I have never opened a record before for the first time. Tapes, CD's, movies, DVD's, all that I have opened, but never before a record. And then getting to play them all for the first time, it holds a unique place in my memories that I may never do again.

So, what does that have to do with my kids inheriting? Well, it made me think of all the things that my uncle and my parents tried to pass on to me at a younger age. All the random museums my mom dragged me to growing up (every Columbus Day we went to one. Corning Museum of Glass, Planetarium, Rochester Museum and Science Center, Fort Niagara, The Genesee Country Village and Museum, The Carousel Museum in Tonawanda, etc.), not to mention every family vacation included something educational (Fort Ticonderoga, The Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake, all of DC but the Jefferson Memorial, etc.). Then there were my summers. I spent a lot of my summers with family, part in the Adirondacks, part in Livingston County. When I was with my mom's family (my Uncle Jerry and Grandma Carney), I spent most of the week doing yard work with them. You have never trimmed that many trees and bushes, cut that much grass, or hauled all you cut, believe me. But contrary to the Forrest Gump quote, I did not do that for free. I got paid. How? Well, I went to a Rodeo, a County Fair, Steam Pageants, and Air Shows, all of which my uncle paid for me to do, as long as I worked my tail off during the week. I saw and learned things no one else would think interesting. I've driven an antique tractor, sat in a P-40 (still my favorite WWII airplane), watched how we lived in bygone times and how our civilization has gotten to here. I actually listened to the same music the flyboys from WWII listened to quite often, not to mention Irish Folk Music (my poor wife went to an Irish Folk Music concert with me when we were dating. She seemed confused as to why I was singing along to 90% of the concert), any and all pop music from the 50's-70's, the list goes on and on. I knew my upbringing was different. How? Because most of the kids I went to school with helped me realize that quickly. Every kid's upbringing is different, but I don't know many kids in my class that could ID most of the major Allied heavy bombers from WWII, much less have seen all but the B-29 fly as a group (I got to go to the Geneseo Air Show with the National Warplane Museum before their rift and see 8 B-17's, 2 B-24's, and a Lancaster fly together with a couple of P-47 Thunderbolts and a gaggle of P-51 D's using a grass field as their runway. This was in the very late 80's to early 90's. Once you figure out why that's cool, we'll talk). I was excited when I heard Vera Lynn sing in person (you want to see some old Vets get dolled up and purty? Have her show up in a Rolls Royce, they all of a sudden don't need their canes anymore). I have people I have worked with as an adult who would have heard her not know who I was talking about.The crazy part about all that, secretly, I liked it. No matter what it did to my so-called social life, I liked it.

So, where am I going with all that? Well, that's part of my inheritance. I just scratched the surface on some of what my family did for me growing up. So here's the kicker: What do I do with all that for my kids? They've been apple picking, to the zoo, #1 son has been to the Dixie Deer Classic twice (that's a redneck party that's worth attending, oh hunters of North Carolina), they know what those crazy birds at the feeder are called, they have started to understand gardening, #1 Son can sing along to "Nature Boy" both with me and Nat King Cole on vinyl, #2 Son loves whatever music I put on, they know what it looks like when eggs come straight from the nest and need to be cleaned, been on a plane (I didn't do that for the first time until I was in high school), and who knows what I've missed. I have some years left, can I fill them with all of what I had given to me? Not exactly, because apparently no one in North Carolina knows how to throw a decent Warplane Airshow. However, I can start one record at a time. They have started to actually be able to tell them apart and tell me which ones they want to listen to. Will they get what I'm doing? I didn't get all of the above until a few years ago, when I realized that by dragging me through every single possible "living" history opportunity they had, my parents made me see the past in a different light. That sparked me realizing that inheritance is something you do, not just an object you leave. With any luck, my kids will like it too. They have a good start, as this past Christmas, the it seemed like the most important ornament #1 Son wanted me to put on the tree from my collection was The Lone Ranger (granted, I primed him for this with putting him to bed listening to some of the taped recordings and also sometimes listening to the one I've got on vinyl as well). No, not that weird Johnny Depp/Gore Verbinski mess. This is Clayton Moore at his Silver riding best. Tail streaming, finger pointing, blue outfit wearing, American West goodness (seriously, it needs a button to push with the recording, "Hi-ho Silver....AWAAAAAAAY!!!!). And my son was excited about it. One small step for dad, one giant step for inheritance.

My wife went and stayed overnight with #2 son tonight, leaving this AM, so I got to spend the day with #1 son. We did a whole bunch of stuff. We even started the day with watching Oshie score multiple shootout goals to win the game against Russia, followed by venison sausage and scrambled eggs. Granted, I had wanted to take him hunting and fishing today, but Pax made that not a possibility.

After hockey and whatnot, we started with the errands (which included stop at Starbucks for coffee grounds for compost, a tall vanilla blonde roast, and a tall hot chocolate...mine was gone before we got home, but he dropped his on the driveway when we got home. No tears, handled it like a champ). When we got home, we did some snow clean up, hung out, watched bball, and cleaned up a bit around the house while snacking, because we had a linner date (as in lunch and dinner, the meal eaten after 2 and before 5).  Nothing says Presidents' Valentine like Five Guys.

While we were out to eat at Five Guys, he kept watching other people. Eat a little, watch a lot. He noticed the family with the baby, watched the families near us, and kept asking me questions. My favorite was "Where do the cooker people keep going" as they would go in the back for more food to prepare for people. As parents, we're supposed to teach them not to stare at other people, but I kept telling myself to shut it. It was amazing to watch him people watch, be observant, and just flat out learn by those observations of his surroundings. Not to mention the observation is good for those paranoid people like myself who don't like to sit with our back to a door. It means he's learning to be aware of his surroundings in case of problems in public. He talked most of the way to the restaurant, and most of the way back. We had real conversations, to some extent. And those were my moments to make sure he grows up as he should, wise, aware, intelligent, conversant, and awesome. Saying that makes me feel better about not doing the "right" thing and telling him not to stare. I'll save that for church tomorrow.

The drive home saw us talking, real man-versations. He started by asking if my truck could get out of all the mess. That led  us to my truck only being rear wheel drive. We did the basic differences between front wheel, rear wheel, and four wheel drive (we left all wheel drive alone, because this was a man-versation, that AWD nonsense doesn't go on trucks, right?), why daddy's truck was different from Uncle Ryan's because of it, etc. We covered why I hadn't cleaned the snow out of my truck bed (due to weight and improved traction) and talked about how that made the truck drive differently. Always take the opportunities to educate, right?

When we got home, it was tidy up some more and get comfy. PJ's and bathrobes and blankets, oh my. Popcorn while watching TV, all that good stuff. What did we watch? We started with "The Sons of Katie Elder" (seriously, great theme song to this movie, then add in John Wayne, Dean Martin, the Sheriff from The Rifleman as a Sheriff, a gaggle of great character actors, and director Henry Hathaway [also did "North to Alaska" and "True Grit", as well as segments of "How the West Was Won"] and you have a quality Western). Then, on to some Andy Griffith followed by Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Yeah, its a lot of TV, but when he keeps talking and interacting about each thing we watched, it made it tough to stop. The other thing, he's daggone smart. As in the boy has embarrassed me on an intellectual level more than once...and he hasn't started pre-school. The one thing I will add here for my opinion moment: If you're going to watch TV, watch stuff you know has quality, not the larger portion of mess out there.

Oddly enough, putting him to bed was easy tonight. Funny moment leading up to it was seeing the dog laying next to the kitchen door, staring out, wondering where my wife and #2 son were. Then potty, teeth, devotions, hugs, kisses (I got a lot of those today, which is awesome), turn on the music, turn on the fan and heater, turn out the light, and done. He asked his one question, then went straight back to bed. Ask my wife how often that happens.

After putting him to bed, it was time to Blog about the day. How often do we miss the little things because we get too busy? I can say for sure that I will not remember today the way that he will. I may have given him a memory today that he will hold and treasure for the rest of his life. How many of us consider a day like that? Of course, I may have done nothing for his memories and just got him full of Five Guys, popcorn, and visual sensory overload. I guess the thing is, it feels like a carpe diemed day. That's what parents forget, to find their fulfillment in the time they spend with their kids. Its 9 PM, I still have a Sunday School lesson to write for tomorrow (Beatitudes, those who mourn), and I'm still pondering if I want to sleep in my bed with the dog tonight, or in the bottom bunk in Keenan's room with the dog tonight (note: our dog is never allowed into bedrooms or on furniture...unless Lauren's gone and I feel charitable). But the bottom line stands: It was a good day. I look forward to processing it in a Wordsworthian fashion (as in his definition of poetry - the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility) and seeing what I missed. Because I did, I missed something. I hope he didn't realize I did. I hope he thought today was all about him, because these days will be few enough in his lifetime. Whatever I missed, I hope I figure it out and learn from it, so tomorrow can be just as awesome.

Today's Accomplishment

A SAHD measures life with the small accomplishments. The steps, the squiggles, the inches, these make up the day's labors, some successful, some not. Add into this the working mom that comes home and takes over so I can get my work for school done, and you have our lives tonight. However, I can claim that I taught #1 Son one thing today: The Cover Flip. What is this, you ask? Well, I'll tell you:

You're resting comfortably in bed, and all of a sudden, that need to go to the bathroom hits you. Do you just scrounge the covers off of yourself, or do you reach over towards the edge, grab hold, and neatly flip back the covers? Myself, I flip. That way, when I come back, I can reach over, grab in a similar fashion, and flip said covers back over myself. Tonight, I successfully taught #1 Son this most important of skills for comfortable and efficient cover operation so one can get to sleep as quickly as possible after being rudely awoken by whatever.

The little skills remind me of a song that holds a special place in my family's past. We played it at my grandfather's funeral, a uniquely Irish gentleman that gifted his full name to my father and brother, and my #1 son's middle name. Take a listen, and realize that it is the small things that make the biggest accomplishments.

The Old Man