Rainy days and Mondays....

First off, it is Tuesday, not Monday. But it is raining, and it is Spring Break, and it has been raining pretty much since the Monday of Spring Break started. Which means.... no parks, no picnics, no bike rides, no sending the kids outside when they are fighting, no jumping on the trampoline that we just got last Friday. And to top it off my kids have this really annoying habit of never actually saying that they are bored. They may BE bored, but they will never say so. Which is really annoying to me because I have always wanted to use that great old mother line: "If your so bored I can GIVE you something to do!" And then proceed have them clean the bathrooms, do the laundry, ect. But they just never say it. I sort of suspect their father may have beat me to using this line at some time in the past and thereby teaching them to never say it again. Darn men.

So how are two kids who are NOT bored and are only allowed limited video game time going to spend their inside days? (Not reading, that is for sure at my house.) Well so far it has been games. Chess, checkers and Monopoly. Last night they played a version of Monopoly called Oceonopoly with fish pieces. This morning the little terds invented their own version complete with their own homemade game board and lego pieces.

Now I love the inventiveness of this, and I also love that it keeps them entertained, but it always ends the same way. You see whenever they make up games they also make up their own rules as they go along. Of course the rule made up always favors the one who made it up and they invariably end up in a fight and someone pouting in their own room. (Fine! I'm not playing with you any more! You can just play by yourself for the rest of the day!)

Now this always gets my hopes up that playing alone will finally lead to one of them actually saying the "bored" word. However I think they can read my mind because so far they have always made up after about 15 minutes.

I ask you, how is a girl supposed to get her bathrooms cleaned around here?

Recent reads

My two most recent reads that I have completed. Both books were for my reading group, which I was very faithful to for a couple of years, then I took time off when we got into the depressing novels of the 20th century. I prolonged my time off when I decided to take some college classes last year because, frankly, I could hardly get my Bible study and my required Anatomy and Physiology reading done, much less any other book. But finally I am trying to get back into it. The last three books for the reading group have been read by me, but unfortunatley I have been unable to actually make it to the meetings for a variety of reasons. Anyway, here they are. I hope to eventually post my past reads here too.

Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson by Mrs. Mary Rowlandson - very short but thought provoking. Definitely does not fit the "politically correct" view of American Indians and early settlers. Somehow I think the truth probably lies somewhere between the view that she portrays and the revisionist history view prevalent today. Since we are all part of the human race, including our desperately wicked hearts, I am sure that there is plenty of blame on both sides of the equation.

How Then Should We Live by Francis Schaffer - Loved, loved, LOVED this book! Not an easy read but SO insightful! I think I am going to have to buy it to have in my library. I bit scary though when you see the direction that we are logically headed.

Gardening and cabinets and straw houses, oh my!

Here are the books I brought home from the library last night (plus a whole stack of kids books, which I will not detail):

1) Container Gardening by Anthony Atha - I'm not sure if anything new here, but many very pretty pictures for inspiration. Also contains a plant directory in the back with info regarding how they do in containers.

2) The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean - I have not started yet but this book has intrigued me for a while now. Will update after I have read it.

3) Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew - I wish the pictures were in color. But otherwise a lot of useful info. Brad got some good ideas looking at it.

4) Cabinets and Built-Ins by Paul Levine - I love this book! Who knew I could stay up until midnight reading a woodworking book! It has some really great tips and makes it seem like even I could build myself some kitchen cabinets (except for my fear of the table saw, which is another issue...) I am thinking that eventually I could use this book to design some upper cabinets for my kitchen that go all the way up to my vaulted ceiling and finally lose that dust collector that is called a plant shelf.

5) The Straw Bale House - Love this book too but once again wish more pictures were in color. It really makes want to start designing a house with straw bale construction, solar panels, root cellar, etc. Someday, sigh!