Just another day in the life of Mrs. Dad Run Amok

We recently added two new members to our pet family. We have 2 gerbils and our daughter has a dwarf hamster, but they are not real cuddly. So I was thinking about another rodent or some other somewhat larger pet. I’d had the opportunity to care for a friend’s guinea pig and had enjoyed it quite a bit. So I began looking.

After several months, I decided a guinea pig was neat, but not for me. I’d heard about another possibility. I was now considering animals famed to be incredibly smart, loyal, and fun to have. I went to a pet store one day, just to look. There was a large, obviously adult, example of this species on display. I asked one of the store workers about it and she said they had many younger ones in the back in a separate cage. She soon brought these little ones to the front and I had a look. I handled a couple and then picked one that was black and white. I was surprised at how soft he was, how curious and how affectionate. He sat on my lap and let me pet him for several minutes. I had to have him, and so began filling out paperwork, looking for exotic pet accouterments, and deciding whether to get one or two. Though these creatures are very social and are rumored to do best in pairs, I only got one. My reasoning was that I would have plenty of time to give one all the attention it might need.

After about a half an hour in the store, I was on my way home with pet and accouterments in hand. Since my hubby was driving, I opened up the cardboard carrier and put my hand inside to comfort the furry fellow. Sniffles, as I later named him, put his head in my hand and left it there for most of the remainder of the way home. When we got home, I immediately got him out of the carrier. (I’m a softy and didn’t want to leave him in there one second longer than necessary.) He ran up the front of my jacket, buried himself between my neck and my hair, and sat. My rat (had you guessed by now?) had won my heart. Sniffles stayed on my shoulder until we got the cage put together and the bedding in. Then I introduced him to his new home.

I enjoyed the first few days, but was concerned as he didn’t seem that active. After much debate and about five days, I returned to the pet store to buy my husband “his” rat. The second one we picked was in the same set I had looked at earlier that week. He was albino, cream-colored, with red eyes. My husband had wanted a cream rat. This one was larger than Sniffles, but not much. He was a bit more skittish as well. But I brought him home.

Having educated myself on rat introductions, I put the two in neutral territory and introduced them. They didn’t seem to really notice or mind each other. After a time, I put them in the cage together. They spent a couple days figuring out who was “top rat”,wrestling and power-grooming each other. Though I can’t tell, they’ve obviously figured out the order of things. And since then, they have both been active: wrestling, climbing and playing tug-of-war with a rope tied to the cage. We have had great fun with Sniffles and Merlin, as my husband dubbed his rat. We’re continuing to learn how much to feed them, how to play with them, how to train them and even how to bathe them. Not quite two weeks into this adventure and I am sold on rats!

Interesting.
The past few weeks have been interesting.
We got record amounts of snow in a state where grass is green often year round. Two record blizzards in fact! In the space of less than 2 weeks. And about 50 or so inches total. I, even though I’m from Kansas, have never seen THAT much snow at one time. When the meteorologists predicted it, I was so excited, I couldn’t wait for it to start. (I think I mentioned, I’m from Kansas. I like a good snow storm. And yes, even though I homeschool my kids and I am not IN school anymore, I still am filled with glee when schools close due to snow.)
After being impatient for the flakes to start falling, I soon began to wonder when and if it would stop! Nagging thoughts: What if we lose power? What if we can’t get out and we have some emergency? What if my cabin fever gets so bad I start watching Gilligan’s Island reruns?
After the second storm waned, I thought I was in the home stretch. I was actually pleased with myself and how well I had “weathered the storm.” I enjoyed being with my family, after all. I enjoyed not going anywhere and doing crafty stuff around the house. I didn’t mind that we were stuck.
Then the night hit when I turned to my husband and said those two words that I’d often uttered as a child, but never as an adult. “I’M BORED!” I really said it. I’m 40-something, married, a homeschooling mother of two, and I said I was bored. Not that there wasn’t plenty that could be done around the house, but I didn’t want to be where I was. I was ready to get out.
So get out, we did. Slowly at first. A trip to the post office. A quick stop at the store. And it was like being in a Colorado ski town! So much snow, nobody knew what to do with it. No place to park for the snow. Driving lanes suddenly stopped because of snow. One lane driveways at local businesses. Cars buried under the white stuff. Icicles the size of telephone poles.
And when I was out, I was almost giddy. I found myself happily discussing weather with an employee in the McDonald’s dining room. I smiled and said “hi” to just about anyone who’d notice. I just wanted somebody different to talk to. I was so relieved to be out.
But the snow has thrown off my groove. How do I get back into it?
Just wait… Rumor has it there’ll be more snow next week…

Families have many and varying traditions for the Christmas holidays. Ours has been a composite of Dad Run Amok’s upbringing, my upbringing and change.
I had a fake tree growing up. You know the ones? Many different-length sets of branches, assembled tier by tier onto a wooden center pole. My dad would always assemble it with help from a kid; when I got old enough, I inherited the job of helper: sorting the branches into piles according to the paint color at the base of each branch. Theoretically, this helped my dad put it together more quickly. Looking back, I can’t imagine how! But, I always felt important and helpful at that exciting and somewhat overwhelming time of year.
So as the newly formed Dad Run Amok duo, we chose to buy a fake tree when we first got married. K-Mart, if I remember right, and about 30 bucks. It was so tall, we only assembled the whole thing once or twice. Normally, we left off the whole bottom section and it was still 8 1/2 feet tall! That particular tree lasted us through 10 years of marriage, five moves in two different states, and two births! Then we freecycled it and changed our tradition.
Since then, up until this year, we’ve just searched a tree lot or two, picked out a nice live tree, paid for it and brought it home. Change again. This year we voted to cut our own! We decided to travel up north a bit and meet some great friends at their favorite Christmas tree farm last Friday. The weather was not rainy, nor were we worried about mud. We picked the coldest, windiest day to go get our tree!
So all four of the DRA (Dad Run Amok) clan and the other family of five enjoyed a freezing afternoon out on the tree farm: sliding down huge slides, walking through beautiful “forests” of trees and sitting atop a metal cow! I even commented at one point on the “rushing water” sound the wind made through the trees. Both families were successful in finding a tree, some great photos, and some new memories. Both were also successful at not losing any kids, fingers to frostbite, or winter paraphernalia. While the men tied the trees on top of the minivans, the moms and kids enjoyed a round of hot cocoa. (Don’t worry. We saved some for the dads.)
So this tradition we have to credit to our good friends and their willingness to share their family tradition with us. Thanks guys!

I enjoy fall, but not like I do spring. I love the hope of warmer days, the surprise of new plants poking up through the ground, the brilliance of color from all the flowering plants. And at the age of –, I still am amazed at life.
It’s fall right now, but I have been experiencing a bit of spring. The unseasonably warm weather in November, you ask? No, although I know this contributes to my story. Let me explain.
Several months ago, mid to late summer, my children and I made a project. Inspired by a magazine how-to, we created a bird feeder from an empty milk jug. We didn’t have any bird seed, but plenty of gerbil food. (It’s almost the same thing, I figured.) We put seed in the feeder and hung it out on our front porch, but were disappointed when no birds visited. After a few months, I took it down and dumped out the seeds in the front yard; I reasoned that the squirrels could have it.
About three weeks ago, on a homeschooling morning, I stepped out front to enjoy some sun and survey my yard. I think I was looking for wild mushrooms for a science project. I was surprised to find grass of some sort sprouting in and among my garden of azaleas. Spring?! The grass was only in one area and I’d not seen anything like it before. As I began to pull up the unwanted “grass”, I noticed seed coats at the root that resembled the gerbil food. Aha! I immediately called my kids out to see the botany in our own front yard. I was so amazed that the seeds had sprouted in late fall, though looking back, I’m not sure why. That is what seeds do when given the right temperature, soil, moisture, and sunlight.
Though my kids came out, they were not as excited as me. However, my daughter and I did find an odd plant unlike the “grass” sprouting in the same area. We decided to dig it up, put it in a pot and bring it in to figure out what it was. We conducted an experiment. We picked several of the larger seeds out of the gerbil food that we then planted to sprout. One was a small sunflower seed, one a big sunflower seed, one a corn kernel and one an unknown, tan, round seed about the size of a dry pea. The unknown seed sprouted and looked exactly like the plant we had found outside. Looking on the ingredients list of the gerbil food, we decided we’d “discovered” trapper peas.
So now, each morning, I come down to my dining room to check out my little indoor garden. We have two trapper pea plants and a sunflower seedling so far. It makes me feel like spring is right around the corner, though we’ve not really seen a day of winter yet. I hope we can enjoy them all through the winter.

Here are a few pictures of my kids’ entries into the community fair and some fun they had with some friends…

I just finished “art class” with my kids for homeschool. It was fun, exciting, and very enjoyable. We did mirror prints with multiple colors of paint and each child did several prints. The kids had fun, and more remarkably, I had fun as well.

“Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be?” you ask wonderingly. Maybe, but not for me… until this year.

Art is one of MY favorite subjects. I am an artsy person. I paint, knit, crochet, sew, draw. I’ve made costumes for Halloween, created birthday cakes, made pinatas. I LOVE ART!!

But to teach art? To deal with the mess of creativity? To help them do something I love? Whoa! No way, man! Too stressful!

But this year is different. And I attribute it to a few simple things: 1) HAVE A PLAN! 2) GET ALL YOUR SUPPLIES. 3) MAKE ROOM TO DRY PROJECTS. 4) EXPECT A LITTLE MESS.

First, I have a book to work from that shows many different projects with prints. I decide ahead of time what project we’re going to do and any specific direction I want to give them about what I expect. This belays confusion, arguments and stress.

Second, I went out and bought all the supplies I’d need and put them in one easily accessible place. When it’s time to tackle a project, I am confident I have everything we need to make it fun. I also get everything ready while they are completing some other work.

Third, I figured out a cool way to dry all those prints, so I wouldn’t feel like I had to limit the kids to one or two prints. This was one stressful piece for me. I don’t really have drying racks or room to lay out 6 or 8 beautiful pieces of artwork. I got inspiration from a friend who hangs her kids’ artwork from the clothesline. I don’t have a clothesline; I do have kitchen cabinets with knobs that I can attach string to and run from one side of the kitchen to the other. Then I use little clothespins to hang up their artwork. I have room this way for about 10-12 pieces of 8 1/2 by 11 paper.

Last, I’ve learned to expect a little mess. Most things are washable, fixable, cleanable. So what if the paint gets dropped on the floor? So what if my child accidentally paints me? Relax…

All of these things have made teaching art more enjoyable for me as “the mom” and I think ultimately more enjoyable for the kids. We have more fun. Yeah!

When I knew I was going to have my first child, I knew that I would be receiving a new kind of education. I knew that so much of what I would be experiencing would be new territory for me, though others have to a great extent been there. However, I really had no idea what this new education would encompass.

Since I’ve become a mom, now of two children, I have learned many things. For starters, possession has developed new nuances of meaning hidden from me since I entered adulthood. Children believe if they can see it, it belongs to them! Not only that, but they must have it in their hands. If they can’t hold it, somehow this is torturous and cannot be tolerated!

I’ve also learned a great deal about Pokemon. “What’s that?” you ask. Obviously, you don’t have a 6 to 9 year-old boy (or sometimes girl) in your life. It’s a trading card game and a game you can play. However, unlike most card games, you don’t get all the cards you need to play in the “starter deck!” (That was my first hint of annoyances to come.) So, because you don’t have all the cards you need, you HAVE to continue to buy decks, starter packs, etc. And when you buy a deck, you may or may not get new cards or ones that you need. (This is evil, I’m pretty sure.)

The purchase of cards set aside, I didn’t realize I would be required to learn the names, hitpoints, types, evolutions (did Darwin invent this game?), and weakness and resistance of over a thousand made up characters. And the names couldn’t be simple, like Tom and Jerry. No! They had to be three-dimensional names like Chimchar, Electrike and (my favorite) Budew, which spelled differently is actually one of my son’s nicknames.

Then there is the actual game (which I no longer have to play! Whew!) In the spirit of homeschooling, I learned the rules of the game online and sat down to teach my son how to play. After being frustrated that we not only were missing important evolutions to be able to effectively play the game, we found that we didn’t have the right kind of energy cards to activate said Pokemon. Luckily, he has since found several friends with whom he can play, trade and discuss Pokemon at great length.

Oh, and he was never the one frustrated with the game. My son has the uncanny ability to change the rules of any game to fit what works for him. Outside the box? He was born outside the box.

So, as I move past the Pokemon phase (for me, anyway), I look forward to learning what passes as music these days, how texting will take over my kids’ lives, and that I don’t know nearly as much as I thought I did before I had kids. Oh wait, I’ve already learned that.

Wow! The summer flew by SO fast, I can’t even figure out where the time went. Two birthdays, a week of Vacation Bible School, afternoons at the pool, trips to the library, playdates with friends. I guess that’s where it went.

Now we are looking ahead to fall. I’ve been thinking about planning my kids’ next year of school for a while. Does that count as planning, or do you actually have to plan something? If it does count, I’ve probably put in more than my fair share of planning hours. On the other hand, I only have a few extra worry lines and gray hairs to show for it!

Seriously, I’m excited about the upcoming year. I have acquired a few new things for the  “homeschool room” that doubles as their playroom. I was given a huge desk that can seat two kids side-by-side, with drawers for folders and office supplies at each end. I also was able to buy a full set of used encyclopedias with updates for only $10!! Yes, all of the technology information, much- if not all- of the science information, and a lot of the world geography is outdated. But we now have a set of encyclopedias that my kids can learn to use and my son can read outright, if he’s anything like his father…

I also began purchasing curriculum, planning what we’ll cover and digging out helpful books that have been scattered among our 70 or so bookshelves. (It just seems that way.) Can you tell I’m excited?

My kids aren’t. But I can’t blame them. Once we get started, they’ll enjoy the learning; but for now they are mourning the end of summer. No more afternoons at the pool, birthdays are gone and Christmas is still four months away, and pretty soon we’ll be off daylight savings time. Don’t even get my husband started on that!

Well, I have broken through the resistance to technology once again. My husband is always by my side, cheering me on. I hope this turns out better than my palm pilot chapter.

So I had a palm pilot with ALL my phone numbers, addresses, birthday dates, etc. We backed it up on the computer, like good techies do. I went on vacation to KS, my home sweet home. (More about that another time.) My lovely palm pilot ran out of batteries and I lost all my data. No problem, I thought.  It’ll be waiting for me on the computer at home… Well, there was no back up. That’s when I swore I’d never use that new-fangled technology again!

I’m sure this will go better. I have IT support right here in my very own home. The Dad Run Amok is always on-hand to help me when I freak out about the latest technology. Now honey, he says. It’s really quite simple…