Excuses To Be Late To School

I have decided to offer our services to you.

Need a new original excuse to be late to school? Just look up Life With Four Boys...Coffee Please and I'll keep a running tally on all sorts of great excuses.

As an added bonus, I will include serious ailments to come up with in case you need a day off.

Take today as an example.

Tuesday night is football practice.  This week we had a late Sunday night because S1 shot ANOTHER doe with his bow and we didn't get to bed till after ten.  Then Monday was practice and Daddy, S1 and S2 had to watch highlights of S2's game.  Twice.  Tuesday was practice and we all went along, Moma walked the track during practice or helped a crying S3 with homework.  We ate back straps for a special dinner and didn't get to bed till nine.

Enter Wednesday.

It's cold, so it's hard to wake up.

It's spirit week for homecoming so there are specific clothes to search for...and a realization that we do not own any T-shirts sporting any singing groups or stars.

S2 was going to pack a knife in his lunch to cut up the venison he wanted to bring to school to eat for lunch.  Thankfully, S1 and I caught it and raised all kinds of fear in the rest of the boys of bringing a knife to school.

We then had to cut up venison for lunch.

Butter and honey sandwiches suddenly are not liked and much coaxing was needed to convince S4 that yes, his lunch would be good.

Moma got  totally slightly distracted watching about the new iphone4s just released...but then she caught all the boys watching too so she had to turn the news off.

S4 then had to hug every single stuffed animal goodbye.  This is the first day he's not allowed to bring his stuffed friends to school.  He usually brings about four or five.  Every. Single. One. was hugged and lined up perfectly on the dining room table to greet him upon his arrival home.

Here's the best part....as we were leaving the driveway, the chicken literally would not move to let us pass and drive down the driveway.

I can not make this stuff up.

We dropped the boys off to school, where I have not a clue what to make for dinner because I am too tired to think anymore.  Wednesday does that to me.

S4 began to let me know his finger was beginning to hurt so badly and perhaps wondered if I thought he would be all right to be at school all day with such an injury.

I made it out of the school at 8:11.  School starts at 8:10.

Feel free to use all and any excuses.....

But be sure to check out your kiddos lunches.  I was in the kitchen with them and missed the knife.  What makes perfect sense to them does not always fly at school.

The Great Cricket Escape

S1 is blessed to have a truly awesome teacher this year. She had the brilliant idea to get the class frogs and crabs. The boys in the class looooooooooooooove her for this.

She asked S1 if he had any connections to keep the frogs fed with crickets. And, because it is us, we DID have connections to supply the frogs with crickets and we have been bringing them into school when they run out.

The first time we went to get crickets we bought 100. I could hear them scratching at the bag all evening and it gave me the eeby jeebies.

I like the sounds crickets make. I wait all winter to hear the peepers and the crickets come spring.

But that many crickets in a little brown bag? Creepy.

Since then we have been just getting 25 crickets at a time (the frogs couldn't eat 100 crickets fast enough). And all has gone well with them.

Until this last purchase.

Apparently, the crickets have caught wind they were going to be a frog's dinner and made a daring escape.

My husband woke me up with a kiss and then whispered in my ear "Honey, there is a cricket crawling across the dining room table. I think some escaped."

I just didn't think those were the words he would whisper in my ear at five in the morning.

When I got out of the shower, a cricket was crawling up the wall to say hello to me. When I went to pour my coffee, one skidded under the fridge. S4 tried to corral one he found in the living room and it died of fright, I believe. When I was watching a movie that night with my husband, I seen two scuttle across the carpet.

And, amazingly, the bag still had enough crickets in it to not be noticeable that an escape had occurred. Or so S1 informs me, he is probably pretty sure I'll make him sleep outside with the crickets after this incident.

The thing is, if I hadn't heard them scratching at the bag, a few crickets in the house wouldn't bother me - I think. But knowing they scratched at the bag and chewed at it to make it out, well, that freaks me out.

Especially when I am lying in bed at night.

And my husband says "Look, I caught a frog in our bed....."

The frog in our bed did not even faze me. I have bag chewing crickets lurking in the house waiting for me to sleep. I don't have time for frogs! I asked him to toss it out the window. He was rather surprised at my blase answer so he tossed the frog on me.

It was plastic.

I will get him back.

It's Asparagus Season Again

Yup, it's that time of year again.

Over here in the mitten state it suddenly got up in the mid eighties. And I loooooove the warm weather after all this snow and ick we've had...

But it also means the asparagus grows like crazy.

And since my husband and has been working funky hours and my boys are in school that means me...and the dogs (who are of no help whatsoever) and S4 on his days off can go pick asparagus.

But S4 was feeling hot so he brought out some stuffed animals he cannot be without and we loaded up on water, I settled him under a tree and I went to work.

Work means bending over and picking each and every spear. In the hot sun. And while everyone can agree, I believe, that I could use some sun kissing - picking asparagus is grueling work. Tonight, as I type this to you, even my fingertips hurt. My legs ache. My feet are throbbing. Asparagus - as much as we love the crop - is hard work.

And S4 didn't want any part of it.

He figured out, instead, how to use my camera. And, as my husband I figured out as we looked through the pictures, he is a very - uh...creative - photographer.

First he took a photo of me picking asparagus. Notice the dog still wearing her winter coat is out in the 85 degree day with me. The five year old boy is laying in the shade. And letting me know it's hot.

When I was gulping down some water, I took this photo. He was building cities in the dirt, I found out later, for Jingle Bells.
These are S4's constant companions. Jingle Bells, Straight Dog and Elkie. Or.....if they need first names...Nut, Hunt and Antler.
He figured we should know who was taking the photos I guess.
This one I loooooooove. He wanted to show that they both could stick out their tongues.
But this.....this cracked me up the most. There are about four pictures of Jingle flying in the air. And his brothers, even they agree this is the coolest most awesomest photo he took.
I'm gonna let him hijack my camera more often, I think.

Walnut War

Often times, people ask me what it's like to have FOUR boys.

Well, it's just normal every day life to us.

Here on our farm, we are blessed (ahem) with walnut trees. Every year my husband is sure we are on a gold mine of money if we could just shuck and shell and package and sell these nasty walnuts. So we pick them up. We put them in baskets. In the spring we toss them in the outdoor wood burner we have.

These humongous trees we have in our drive way send these wonderful little hard concrete feeling balls to rain down on us. You can hear them ping the shed. They pound our roof. The torpedo towards your head. It is no joke that at times the boys have gone out to play with helmets on.

If you are truly blessed, you can get three walnuts bound together that have fallen from the tree still bound as three. These the boys bring into the house to display on my desk or throughout the house. We are truly blessed (ahem).

Or you just leave the walnuts in the yard and they make great baseballs. Or you use them as a fetching ball for the dog, and when she picks one up in her mouth you throw her another and then watch her spastic mind try to figure out what to do. That's kinda funny, in a mean sort of way. You can just leave the walnuts in your yard for the mower to find too. Then they turn into torpedo's, shot out by the whirling blades. Then they are weapons you just don't want to deal with at all....and windows in your home just don't stand a chance against them.

BUT, if you are a bunch of brothers blessed with these wonderful walnut treasures, you might do this.........

Farm Day at the Library

Our little small farming community town has a brand new library and a staff at the library that is just amazing. Honest. I have another town library that I usually go to and have always brought the boys too but this library here in our home town, oh my, they are top notch. Organzied and helpful and when it comes to kids, they go all out.

They are amazing.

Every Saturday they have a special day planned just for the kids. A special theme day. And it's then the kids turn in the hours they have spent reading and get to have fun all over the library so it seems less....well, librarish.

On Farm Day, we didn't think we could make it. But Husband had to work so we decided to head into town and I messaged Alicia (head Librarian) to see if we could bring Broadhead the Rooster. She eagerly agreed.

And so we brought a rooster to the library.

Now, I am going to go out on a limb here and say, I think this is the fist time a chicken has been IN the library.

Broadhead was a HUGE hit. He behaved well, He made no messes. When the story about a Farmer was read he made little clucking sounds every once in a while to make sure all the kiddos were listening and to remind them that he was still there. Still a big deal.

After the story time, they had show and tell time. And it was then that all four of my boys brought in their show and tell. Show and tell I had not realized we had until we had arrived at the library. We had no idea they would get in front of everyone, but they did. And they did GREAT.

S1 talked about Broadhead and the care of him.

S2 showed off a tomato plant.

S3 brought in his birthday fish.

S4 hauled in a five gallon bucket lined in mud and showed the frogs he and his brothers had caught in the swamp.

They were the only ones with show and tell.

They were sorta a big hit.

A local farmer brought in some tractors. All the kids got a chance to sit on them.

S2, decked out in his farmer gear.

S1, thinking this would be a great addition to our farm.

I gotta admit, I love this shot of S4.

S3. Please keep in mind, it's sweltering out. But he was sure this is what a farmer would wear in the summer heat. It's painful to see this!

And here I am with all my boys. I decked out in my farm girl shirt and braids in my hair and my good friend Korene snapped the photo for us. it was a great day!

Sandhill Cranes

Once upon a time, these things were nearly extinct around here. Endangered I guess you would call them. Now they are a nusance, eating the seed right out of the ground when you plant it. Literally.

But I am still amazed by them.

As are the boys, apparently. They seen this bunch land in our field and snapped these pictures.
See, nothing. But then next one? Love it! It's as if it is saying..."hello? Anyone out there?"

Blurry...but these birds are BIG.

This one is really a good shot!

Can you just imagine the four boys, hunkering down in the grass and plants, fighting over the camera, trying to be quiet and talking amoungst themselves and snapping pictures? I know, makes me giggle too.