For the Love of Birds!

I am going to humble myself and tell you about our chaotic experience last week of bugs in Taryn's hair.

I imagine that when I say bugs & hair in the same sentence you automatically assume, as I did, LICE!!! That dreaded word, the dreaded stigma. Taryn had come in from outside three days in a row complaining that her head itched -- her hair was practically standing on end she was itching so much. The first two days I told her she was sweaty -- the third day I checked her out -- and my heart stopped -- I could see little black things the size of pencil dots moving all through her hair. Let me just say -- NASTY!!

So I freak, as any good mom would, and go into overdrive. "We need to go to the doctor. We can't touch anything. We need to move out of our house." And then I call my mom!

After I collect myself, I drive Taryn to the doctor and as I pull into the clinic, I decide to just call them from the parking lot. "Seriously," I thought, "do I have to go in there and pay the co-pay to find out what I already know...bugs in the hair equals lice." So from the parking lot I talked to the nurse on-call and she told me everything I needed to do. It was a list that ended just before move out of your house and after -- "Don't worry, you will eventually get rid of them and if everything I said fails you could try olive oil in her hair for 8 hours a day, 3 days in a row." (I'm not kidding.)

So I come home like an army general shouting orders to my troops. "Put all your stuffed animals and pillows in these plastic bags, pull ALL of your bedding off, goop up your hair with this gunk, throw away your brushes." I comb tediously through every ones hair and discover nothing on anyone but Taryn. Which was encouraging, but surprising. I fell into bed that night to the luxurious accommodations of a sleeping bag and a new pillow that Cal purchased for the whopping expense of $3.49.

I hardly slept.

The next morning I continued with the literal mountain of laundry. I called the school first thing and told them I needed to report a case of head lice in the Kindergarten class. I don't care what they say -- admitting you have bugs in your hair is humiliating.

I then call a friend who I know has been through this mess before and her encouraging words to me were "Ohhhh Shoot! I'm sorry." (It actually was a little harsher than that :)). She told me how important it was to get every nit off of the hair shaft and that she literally went through 10 hairs at a time to remove them all. She also described what she saw. And all of a sudden I realize that what she is describing is not at all what I saw in Taryn's hair. I get on the Internet and start doing research -- and what I am seeing pictured, is not what I experienced. So I google "dot size black bugs" and wouldn't you know -- some ladies blog comes up about these swarms of minuscule bugs that she thought were lice, but weren't. She begins to describe how they discovered the source of the bugs was a birds nest above their car.

The bells go off in my head. We have a bird's nest under our deck on a support beam. Every single day Taryn goes and lays down with her forehead on our deck to peek through the floor cracks and check on the baby birds. She loves to see them opening their mouths wide for food. So I go out to our deck and lay a magazine down on the floor right above the birds nest. Instantly it is covered with these dot-sized bugs.

I quickly call the school -- "Stop the presses -- a note announcing a lice infestation in the Kindergarten is not necessary. It's just bird mites!" Then I call Cal -- "You must come home. You have some baby birds to kill" (However, he couldn't kill the baby birds -- he's such a softy. He propped them by a tree in the back field behind our house. Now they will likely starve to death instead. But I love him for trying.) And the bugs easily washed away!

Thus ends our bug story. The only good thing about it is that all of my bedding and comforters have been cleaned. And I learned that crazy ladies blogging about crazy things comes in handy!

Tribute to Summer

My kids have been back at school for one whole week already! I guess that means summer is officially over. Where did it go?

I thought I'd include my annual "heading off to the first day of school photo."

In memory of another great summer here is my..."What I love about Summer" list:

• Dirty feet that mean my kids have been running around...like kids
  
• Slicing through the cool waters of Lake Okoboji as I dive off the dock
  
• The sound of baseball on TV
  
• Sitting with my husband on our deck with a glass of wine listening to Delilah (honestly my husband's choice)
  
• The smell of fresh cut grass
  
• Jenni -- our "babysitter".
  
• Fresh tomatoes and mozzarella salad
  
• The family road trip -- where memories are made.
  
• A cool breeze coming through my window as I sleep
  
• The sound of crickets in the night air


• Catching fireflies in a jar


• Campfires


• Eating a meal that I grew half of in my garden


• Full moons that light up a night walk.
  
• Sleeping in (This is especially true after a week of trying to get Carter and Taryn out of bed before 7am!!)
  
• Laughter from kids as they jump on the trampoline, run through sprinklers, swing on the swing set, run down the slip'n'slide, throw water balloons.
  
• Bracco's outdoor patio
  
• "Grandpa and Grandma" camp for a week!


• Laying in the grass and watching the clouds.
  
• A happy husband after a few rounds of golfing at even par. (A happy wife on the VERY occasional par on one lone hole.)


• Big sky -- from my house I can see from horizon to horizon. Some people have mountains, or forests or oceans...I have the sky!

Why does summer have to end so soon?

Oh well, at least fall is up next...and I'll have another "What I love" list. Praise God for another wonderful summer and more seasons to look forward to!

Breath Deep

This evening I took a moment to inhale...

I was standing on my deck and I just stopped to look around for a moment and then I took a really deep breath, and do you know what I smelled....I smelled "Iowa". Now before you think pigs, cows and all things stinky, it wasn't that....it was the Iowa of my childhood memories. It was the smell of my grandparents farm that had no animals. The smell of hay and alfalfa and rich black soil. A sweet scent hanging rich in the humid air. As I sat there breathing in the aroma that transported me back to the carefree days of chasing kitties and running in corn fields, of playing kick the can over the barn and spitting watermelon pits into the grass, I wondered -- does it always smell like this here? Do I not even know that these scents are surrounding me because I no longer take time to just sit and breath.

Every summer as a child, my family made the 10 hour drive from Michigan to central Iowa to visit my grandparent's farm for a whole week. It was the best week of summer -- there was something magical about it. The quiet, the stars, the air, the love. The traditions of coffee time and tea time -- just like clock work. (And of course, nap time during "As the World Turns") The fresh raspberries or strawberries that had just been picked covered with cream and eaten in cut glass bowls. The games of pinochle around the big kitchen table. And the laughter shared (at some one's expense) as my grandpa pulled off yet another practical joke.

As I took a moment to breath in tonight, poignant memories filled my mind and I missed those days and the precious people who were the center of them.

Dirty House = Blessing

I will admit that I am terribly annoyed when I walk into someone's house and they are not expecting me (or any company for that matter) and it is completely clean and organized with not one thing out of place. I had that today as I walked into my sister-in-law's house. She was at work and I needed to drop something off unexpectedly. The house was in perfect order and I was filled with both envy and loathing. In fact, I decided that I should probably use the bathroom while I was there -- I'm sure I could have waited, but I think the curiousity got the better of me and I just wanted to see if her bathroom measured up to the rest of the house. Much to my disappointment, it did! Clean as could be.

My house, on the other hand, which I rushed to leave this morning, had a sink full of dirty dishes, unmade beds, baskets of unfolded clothes -- in fact it was so bad, I felt I had to call my husband to warn him that if he stopped at home he would find a disaster -- he laughed and told me he just had and...I was right...

I, in fact, have a number of friends that fit the classification of "House. Always in order". I remember when a friend called me while she was out of town and asked me if I could stop by her house to pick up a clean pair of pants for her son who fell in a mud puddle at school. As I walked into her house, it was disgustingly perfect. Even the boy's room was organized and his drawers were neatly piled. Please...give me a break! I honestly think I would have made Carter sit in dirty, wet pants before I allowed someone to come into my house unexpectedly to rummage through his drawers. (Although, I am beginning to relax. If people know me, they know my home is not pristine.)

So what am I doing wrong that I can't keep the piles off the counter and floor and table, etc? I can't blame the fact that I am busy -- they are all busy too. Is it just not a priority to me? I like a clean house and I can get it that way when I need to -- it just never is organized on an ongoing basis. I am not one of those people who needs to have my kitchen clean before I go to bed. I sleep just fine with a sink full of dishes. However, in the morning, I always wish I didn't sleep quite so easily.

I will say I am very driven by results. So maybe I like it to get it really messy so that when it is clean I feel like I have accomplished something. (How's that for a positive spin on my laziness). I decided I should take a picture of the way I left the kitchen this morning -- and the way it looks now.

Before

After

Accomplishment!

I think one of the reasons I have always enjoyed working part time is because it gives me that sense of completing a task. On the days I am home I often feel I need to give Cal a report on what I did for the day..."I mopped the floor, I washed the dishes, I bathed the kids, etc." He responds "You don't need to give me a report -- I know you were busy." "Yeah, but I need to tell you for my own benefit. Nothing looks different from when you left this morning until now....but in between that time chaos occured and was put back in order and I want someone to know!!" I'm thinking these before and after pictures are a great idea to help build my own sense of accomplishment.

One of the best things a friend ever said to me was "You bless me when you let me see your house like this." Wow! She left me feeling like I really have a lot of blessing to provide through my dirty house! Who knew? Blessings to you all!