Pushing the Bus

It was a typical Michigan January. The snow was deep and the wind was blowing. Like usual when that kind of weather hits the roads were getting some pretty good snow drifts.

Jim was home from work that day because of the weather but the kids still had school. The storm had stirred up really good about the middle of the day and by the time that we were expecting the school bus the roads were very nasty. Jim had gone out to use the snow blower to clean out the drive way and the drifts that had gotten quite big in front of our house. I was inside making supper so I didn't actually know any of this that had happened until all the excitement came in the door.

With all four kids now in school the youngest being in all day Kindergarten we had enjoyed our day and looked forward to their arrival from school. The bus was coming down our road towards the house but the drifts were to high and it became stuck just past the neighbor's house still a quarter mile from us. Jim noticed and stopped working in the driveway, grabbed his shovel and started walking down to the bus. He promptly started digging out the tires only to find that the bus was on a patch of ice too. He walked back up to the door and told the bus driver that he would give her a push to start rocking it back and forth a little.

You can imagine the excitement of the thirty kids on the bus all ranging in age from high school seniors to our little Kindergartner. Most were telling our sons that there was no way he would ever be able to move the bus. After just a few minutes they were on their way and the entire family was back at the house everyone talking over one another as they took off their snowsuits and boots to tell me what had happened.

"Mom did you see that Dad was awesome!" Alicia said as she burst through the door.

"No one thought he could do it! You should have seen their mouths hanging open as he pushed the school bus!" Justin added as he was unzipping his snowsuit.

"I told them my dad can do it he is stronger than he looks, he does construction for a living." Jacob proudly exclaimed as he was hanging up his little sister's snowsuit.

"Dad was strong! He pushed us out!" Alannah added as she wrapped her little cold arms around me and buried her cold nose in my neck giving me my usual after school hug.

"It was nothing we used to get stuck in the snow all the time and push the bus back when I was a kid." Jim said as he was coming in. "Now who wants mom to make us some hot chocolate?" he added.

I was glad everyone was excited and four years later, my children still talk about how their daddy was so strong that he pushed the school bus and how all the kids were amazed. They said all the kids were in awe and said "Don't mess with Mr. Howe he's strong." The kids insisted that I include this story in the blog.

Happy Father's Day to my fabulous, strong husband from all of us. We love you.

Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful dads out there have a great day!

Painting Sun Catchers

Yesterday morning I was shopping. While strolling along I noticed some little sun catcher kits that were on sale. I thought what a great little activity to do with the girls and I could hang them on the large window in the kitchen that doesn't have a blind.

When I got home I decided to make it a bribe.
I did my best presentation of the fabulous mysterious something that I purchased for them and all they had to do to get it was to clean ~ not all, ~ but a portion of their bedroom.

My older daughter immediately said "Well, what is it because if it isn't something I want, I don't want to clean."

Hmm, my idea of bribing was sliding down hill fast...
So I told her that I had bought Sun catchers and how we could hang them in the kitchen and send some to loved ones and friends as little gifts in our letters. Trying desperately to talk them up to be much better of a bribe to her 11yr old pre-teen coolness.

Her reply to my bribe, "Do you still have the receipt? Could you take them back and get something else?"

Well that wasn't happening and little sister was all on board for my bribe so she was going to be coming along for the ride like it or not.

After a couple of hours had passed little sister came to me and said that she had done some cleaning and would like to paint her sun catchers. So, I got up from working on homework to enjoy a much needed break. The two of us got them out and we both started painting. It didn't take very long for big sis to find us and join in. She didn't clean but she does most the cleaning for both of them anyway. She admitted she had never painted sun catchers before and it was fun.

That little comment really made my day. Because me and little sister were enjoying ourselves too.

This morning we got up and hung some of our treasures in the window.

Have you tried to bribe your kids to clean? How did it work and what did you use? Leave me a comment and let me know. Thanks and have a great Friday!

The Moment I Knew

Call it the romantic in me but this is one of my favorite memories.

Jim and I were dating and it was January in Michigan. He drove a brand new 4-wheel drive red Chevy truck. He had just traded his one year old black truck for the next year model a couple of weeks before.

He picked me up at the apartment where I was staying and we were just cruising around on the back roads that were very snowy and talking. All the sudden he looks at me and smiles the kinda grin someone has when they are about to be mischievous says "Let's just see what this thing can do." Then he pulls the steering wheel to the right and drives into the ditch.

I was shocked and worried. The ditches in Michigan can be huge, some of them you can drive down into and no one would even know you were there if they didn't look. They are that big. I held on wondering just what would happen next.

We made it a quarter mile or so and got stuck as he was trying to get back up to the road.

It would not have been unusual to me if he would have gotten angry, mean, began cursing and acting like a jerk. I was used to guys who did stupid things and then got mean when they backfired.

Not Jim, he looked over at me and laughed.

He shook his head laughing and said "Would you mind leaning forward?" I leaned forward and he reached behind the seat and grabbed a shovel. "Well, now we know what she can handle" he said, still with laughter lingering on his voice. "Make yourself comfortable, I'll have us out of here in no time." Then he leaped out of the cab and sank in the snow up to his thighs.

That moment, when he chose to be cheerful and playful in acknowledging the foolishness of his actions and happily accepting the consequences, that was when I knew he was the man for me.

I can honestly say, I've never, not once regretted that decision. After 20 years of marriage I only love him and his craziness even more.

The Shy One

I think every family has at least one.

Ours was the youngest and yes, I said was. "Was" because she has since out grown most of most
her shyness.

Let me give you an idea just how shy this little girl, the baby of four children really was.

She was the baby at the market that people would ooohh and aaahhhh over and she would bury her face in my chest to hide, or later when she was a toddler she would wrap her arms around my leg and bury her face in my leg and hide.

Now don't think that she was shy because we never went out, that is so not the case, she was shy in spite of the fact that her momma was a social butterfly. We were very active since she was born. We went to church every Sunday and Wednesday and Monday morning for MOPS, I was a cub scout and a 4-H leader since she was born so she went with us to meetings and such. Plus, she was born during the time that I was homeschooling the boys and we were active in a homeschool group and she went to all the field trips, activities and meetings for that also. My husband used to joke that I worked harder volunteering during that time than I had worked at work getting paid. Her shyness was a personality trait from the start not a taught or learned trait.

She was the last to be at home with me. Just me and her after everyone else had gotten on the bus and went to school. Yes, they did decide with a little urging from mom that it was time to go back to public school when she was three. I loved it. A little alone time with my baby. But, she yearned to be a big girl, ride the big bus and go to school like her siblings.

Our small town had a half day preschool program so we enrolled her as soon as she was old enough. My little shy girl started school when she was 3.75 yrs old. She went the entire year and never once spoke a word to the teacher or the assistant teacher. Part of the requirement was for me to go and be an active helper and I loved going in and playing with the kids. It really was just a play time that had a story time and lunch and got them used to the idea of being with other kids and being at school with a schedule. She did play with the other kids and did great, she just wouldn't look or speak to the teachers.

She went to Kindergarten the next year at 4.75 years old and had the same problems, she was smart at home and was learning, but would not deal with the adult "strangers" at school. This was a huge issue with her learning. So, she struggled. I'll never forget the day about half way through her kindergarten year that a very happy teacher shared that my daughter had come up to her desk and tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention and then spoke to her. She then continued to speak to her the rest of the year. She was still very shy with anyone else. But her teacher and I were so excited that she finally spoke to a teacher it was a breakthrough.

Our move to Texas and being in a brand new place, at a brand new school was a large push to get over it. I say only most because we did try to go door to door to sell for her school fundraiser this year and only made it to one house across the street and she was done.

Ginger

Today I stopped in my tracks while getting dinner ready to marvel at my 14 year old dog laying in the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room all sprawled out on her side in the doorway and paying me absolutely no heed what-so-ever as I walked back and forth from the kitchen to the table stepping over her each time. She opened her eyes the first time and then she must have realized that I was setting the table because then she just went right back to sleep as I carefully crossed over her.

Finally after the table was set and while my eldest son was

watching the dinner for me and chopping some cheese, I sat down with her there in the middle of the floor between the kitchen and dining room and just gave her a few minutes of my time petting her and let her know how much I appreciate her complete and utter trust.

I have the same trust in her, knowing that even though she loves everyone she meets, she still gets angry when I get angry and she doesn't like anyone to get hit around her even if they are playing. She makes me feel safe and I am glad that I in turn make her feel safe also.

Do you have a pet that trusts you and has your trust? Leave me a comment and let me know. Thanks for dropping by.

The Kitchen

The Kitchen in that old farm house was hand built by the homes first owner and had never been updated. When we first moved in the refrigerator was in the entry room, a weird room off the laundry room.

To describe it best I'll walk through from the driveway with you. The first door you enter from the driveway went into the laundry room a 6ft by 14ft room that did not have a single straight wall. I think it was space between the house and garage that they just decided to make part of the house one day. the laundry room was four walls with four doors one on each wall that led to the driveway, garage, backyard and the entry room.

The entry room was another weird little room some in MI called them mud rooms. A place where you could land your muddy shoes that also had the refrigerator and led to the only small bathroom in the house. My theory was, and when we remodeled there were indications, that the house was built a little at a time over many years.

From the entry room you enter the kitchen. All of the cabinets were on the left side of you as you were walking through with the sink in the middle and the door going to the dining room on the opposite side. A straight shot right from one doorway to the other.

I decided one day while in town that those ugly cupboards could use a coat of paint and picked some up at the hardware store. Then when my little guy fell asleep for his afternoon nap I started taking all the doors off the cupboards and painting the base. When my husband finally got home for supper, there I was sitting on the kitchen floor painting the doors and our little guy was sitting by the gate in the doorway playing with his toys.

I knew that there wasn't much I could do to make that old house my own and look good without his help, but I knew how to paint and could do at least that much. I was so proud of myself when I finally finished and put it all back together the next morning. It was my very first home remodeling project.

We continued to live in that house for the next 18 years and that poor kitchen never did get any more done to it, but we had always dreamed of remodeling it and turning it around creating our dream kitchen. In the end we had lived the dream without needing a "dream kitchen".

Isn't it amazing how when you look back on things, what seemed important then really wasn't. It was all about the time we shared, not the place we shared it in.

Happy Accidents

On my very last day of working as a temporary secretary for Waste Management outside of Sandusky, back when the boys were young, I went to pick up the babysitter and on the way home I was involved in an accident.

I was driving down the dirt road and there were corn fields on all sides and no stop sign, so I didn't stop and clipped a car. We both went into different ditches and immediately got out worried about the other. The lady (I'll call her Dee)was so sweet all worried about me and upset. We started chatting waiting for the police officer to make the report.

Dee was a neighbor to my husband's parents and knew my husband. Everything was soon taken care of with the police officer and we went our own ways. I thought I'd probably never see her again.

Then about two months later I went to go check out a church down the road from our farm house and who spots me right off the bat and grabs my hand like an old friend to introduce me to everyone in the small church, yep, it was Dee. I was mortified and embarrassed. But, she made sure those feelings didn't last long. It was moments before that feeling was replaced by the love and warmth that she and all the people at the church were giving me.

It must be about 15 years later now and Dee is still one of my closest friends. We used to love introducing each other to new people. We'd say something like "Hey Tom, I'd like you to meet my good friend Dee. We actually met by accident, we crashed into one another and became the best of friends." Now that is a conversation starter.