Play Day

 Today was Play Day at our grandboys school. Since they live in a small town where the school is just a couple blocks away from the school, they take their jackets and lunch and water bottles and walk.  I'm assuming some people get to drive because when I got there every class had a nice little canopy shelter to provide shade (which wasn't needed) and a place to corral their stuff.  When I got there at 10:20, having planned to be there at 10 because that was the starting time, but didn't make it because I had to get gas,  which was really appalling because gas is now 3.999 a gallon and I was nearly empty after a trip to see the audiologist yesterday in Omaha. So, I got their at 10:20 as aforesaid and they were already well underway so I missed several events. 

Barry and Christian were in the same group, 3rd and 4th graders.  Barry's teacher took care of the boy contingent and I suppose Christians teacher was in charge of the girls.  The morning was taken up with races,  I believe Barry was first in the 100 and 300.  The third graders are really at a disadvantage when they are grouped with the older ones.  But, they will get their turn next year.  Besides normal running, they do the three-legged race. a hula hoop race with two kids in the hoop, a ball on a spoon race, which I missed.  After the races, about 11ish, they break for lunch and then have quite a long time to just run around and play together while the parents stand or sit around in the chilly wind ready for the day to be over. After lunch are the field events with baseball, beanbag, and frisbee and tennis ball throwing, hockey puck hitting, long jump, a relay and a final, free for all running together, albeit separated into little, medium and big kid age groups. 

By and large, these are good kids. There is no fighting. They listen and get into lines when they are supposed to.  Now, of course, they aren't marching around like little robots, but it doesn't take much effort to get them in order.  It's like organized chaos and sounds like "the parrot house at the zoo." Except for the lines to the next event, these kids are running everywhere they go. Truthfully, I enjoyed watching those kids run during they lunch playtime.  There is no obesity problem here. 

After lunch the sun began to show it's face periodically and so it would be warm shining on us for a little until a cloud got in the way and the wind felt chilly again.  By the time to go home, it was shining brightly. A lovely end to a day that started out cold and cloudy. 

Running back from the 200 m race.

Starting 300m

First in on 300m

Hula-hoop race

Corn hole

Long jump

Frisbee throw

Ready for the relay

And away we go!

Remembering On A Windy Day

One year ago today a baby boy was born.

Born into receiving parents hands and lives already passed on to another life.

Born also, a grief that comes and goes as life continues, 

leaving a hole that makes a scar, a forever remembrance.

Today is windy.  

It was windy the day we laid our Bennett Wilder to rest.

It was windy on Saturday when we gathered at his grave to remember.

To celebrate a life that lived a very few weeks sheltered in a loving mother's body.

One year.

One year of many, yet we are blessed with that memory.

A new chapter begins, but we won't forget the old.

 

On The Line

I like to hang clothes on the line instead of using the dryer.  Partly because I'm tightwad and partly because I like some "old ways." When drying clothes on the line a fairly stiff wind helps in the drying process and removes wrinkles. Several years ago we had a summer that was calm. It wasn't good clothes drying weather.  We live on a hill and the first thing I noticed after we moved here was the wind.  I've always said that we don't think it's windy around here until it's blowing 25 miles an hour. 

After a few years of fairly calm summers and enjoying them, we get 2022.  All the wind that didn't blow in those few summers have come to us this April.  We've had so many windy days where it is uncomfortable to be out because it's cold.  We've had days where it's a struggle to walk against the wind and we have to hold on to our car doors so they aren't sprung.  And then there is the shift in temperatures.  One day, Tuesday, it was 88 degrees and windy, of course, and by nightfall freezing temperatures were back.  It's been fluctuating like that all winter, really, not the 80 degrees, but 30s, then 60s, then 20s, then 40s, then 60s again, and 50s and on and on.  

Line-drying clothes doesn't work at 35 mph unless I watch them because they will blow off into the neighbors if left too long. 

This year, we've had the 20-25 mph winds, plus wind gusts of 40 to 60 mph on different days. 

It makes staying inside feel pretty good.

On the days with warmer weather I get anxious to be outside cleaning the garden trash off my flower gardens, However, picking up dry leaves and flower stems and trying to put them in my garden cart is counter productive since they all fly away into another part of the flower garden to be picked up again.

No, thanks.

April around here also brings family, and baby chicks.

Lynette and Anthony often come in April and every year Jim thinks we need more chicks.

Whether I think we do or not is beside the point, and they are cute.

Family Supper

The wind died down enough for us to enjoy the outside for a bit.

More Words

 Last weekend we paid a visit to my folks.  They had a load of sand delivered to fill an old cistern pit and the delivery was so over what was needed, that Jim took the tractor to clean up the sand and pack the pit. While we were there, we added to the already formidable list of idioms, proverbs and sayings. 

Mom, who grew up hearing this and taught them to me, was making a list, and we thought of and spoke more of them during the visit.  It's a way of speaking for us.  It's normal. 

I'm making a new list, since the other one is so long.

Sayings

Adding insult to injury

All bets are off

Better fish to fry

Beyond the pale

Bit off more than I can chew

I have a bone to pick with you

Brought to a head

Burning the midnight oil

Cash on the barrel head

Cat got your tongue?

Clear as a bell

Cool as a cucumber 

Don't burn your bridges

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth

Don't rock the boat

Down to brass tacks

Dry as a bone

Give up the ghost

Get off on the right foot

Get our of my hair

Get under your skin

Get your foot in the door

Give them the boot

Got the short end of the stick

Finger on the pulse

Fly by the seat of your pants

A fly in the ointment

I have a bone to pick with you

In the loop

In the nick of time

Jump out of your skin

Let sleeping dogs lie

Like a fish out of water

Living hand to mouth

Look at what the cat dragged in

Lose your shirt

Low man on the totem pole

Money burning a hole in your pocket

Need like a hole in my head

No skin off my teeth

Not my  cup of tea

Not my strong suit

On its last legs

Out of the loop

A pig in a poke

Poor as a church mouse

Preaching to the choir

Put a damper on

Put your best foot forward

Right of the bat

Right on the money

Running around like a chicken with its head cut off

Same song, second verse

See the handwriting on the wall

Sharp as a tack

Slick as a whistle

Spill the beans

Start on a shoe string

Sticks to your ribs

Strike while the iron is hot

Sweep under the rug

Take the bull by the horns

Testing the waters

The early bird gets the worm

The tide has turned

Too big for your britches

Tricks of the trade

Until the cows come home

Waiting for the other shoe to drop

A watched pot never boils

Water under the bridge

We're all in the same boat

What goes around comes around

You can't teach an old dog new tricks

You make a better door than window

Other Words

A pretty kettle of fish

All buttoned up

As the crow flies

Bandied about (told around)

Bone of contention

A bum steer

Cobble together

Crack of dawn

 A Doubting Thomas

On edge

Feel like death warmed over

Feel like I've been run over by a truck

For crying out loud

Hand over fist

I declare

In a pickle

In nothing flat

In one ear and out the other

Jam-packed

Looked High and Low

Nip and Tuck

No time like the present

Pain in the neck

Pennies on the dollar

Shot down

Slim to none

Splitting hairs

I'm ready to be done with this project, but it has been lots of fun.

We use a lot more than we thought we did.  Most of these, one time or another, we have used.

Our language is the more colorful in their use.  

First list

It Really Is There

As anyone who has read my current posts will know that I am obsessed with words and phrases at the moment. It is remarkable how many come up in our everyday language.  My dad has been collecting them from the "old men" (pardon me, Dad) that exercise at the same time he does.  I notice them in books, the news and in other people.  I have used at one time or another most of those words and phrases.  

When Jim's sister, Bonita was here, I asked her if they used that sort of language in New England, and they don't.  It may be a "middle of the country" and southern sort of thing. 

Anyway, one of the sayings I use quite a bit, and it really doesn't qualify in my list, is "and there you are" when making a point or finishing up a thought.  The last line in that paragraph reminded me of it, and there you are!

Marching On

 Two of my grandsons are interested in making music.  One wants to play the piano, one the guitar.  Since I can play the piano, I rashly offered my services to give piano lessons.  I'm not a very good teacher.  I don't seem to be able to think of efficient ways to get the lessons across.  I'm not really starting from scratch, because Christian has had his keyboard for a year.  It is labeled with the key names and places on the keyboard and he has a book that makes this kind of playing easy.  My training being traditional read from the book and play the keys, I'm having to adjust my thoughts and teaching to a slightly different method where fitting what he knows into what I think he needs to know.  

Last week I was emphasizing timing and the different values of notes, instead of playing every note at the same speed.  This week he was much improved.  I think he has potential. However, like most kids, he won't realize that potential unless he practices.  Barry is taking guitar lessons from the school music teacher.  I asked him today how his practice was going.  It wasn't.  We have two of a kind there. 

I hated practicing when I was a kid.  I would be a better pianist if I had, but I play well enough to give myself and sometimes other pleasure, so I'm happy with that.  I could still learn more, if I practiced.

Here it is March.  It came in like a lamb with 70 degree weather.  This has been a crazy winter.  I don't think I've ever known one like it.  I've seen 80 in February before, but while this winter has had its fair share of weeks with chilly weather hovering around the freezing mark, it has more weeks with temperatures ranging from 50s to just below zero.  My prediction is of a cold May or a great dumping snow in April. We are getting a little bit of snow this afternoon after some drizzle and sleet.  We are so short on moisture and this is going be the most current of the four barely cover the ground snows.  It won't mitigate the lack of moisture problem.

Basketball is over.  We try to get to as many games as we can.  In small schools like the boys are in, Jr. High basketball is the PE program, so everyone practices during school, and everyone goes to the games, which were held on Wednesday afternoons. I've enjoyed watching Zane play.  I remember my own pitiful attempts in games when I was that age.  I didn't know how to play the games; I was afraid to put myself out in case I make mistakes (the teasing was brutal).  I also have problems with depth perception so trying to hit anything at the end of a stick just doesn't work. 

I watch Zane follow what I assume are the directions of his coach.  The team sets up a certain way under the basket and he's ready to catch and pass.  He makes a few baskets.  He gets right in there to get rebounds.  It does help that he's one of the taller ones and can jump.  He plays as part of the team, and they win a good share of the time. 

Barry's program isn't part of the school as Jr. high and high school are, but the local schools with their volunteer coaches make a league and play each other at their schools. I enjoy watching Barry play, too. He and his classmates are a competitive group and play well together on the basketball court.  I think they as a group really are "getting" how to play.  I really don't know much about the rules and strategy.   I wonder if I should read up on it. They are a short small-boned bunch, but they are fast and win against much taller and larger opponents. Neither of these boys are the main basket makers, although they usually make a basket or two a game.  Barry is excellent at assisting and those kids just dart in and around the other team and get the job done.  In fact, they've only lost one game that I know of, but I didn't get to all the games.  A couple weekends ago they had a weekend tournament and they played three games each day and won a gold medal both days. 

Family Time

The End Of The Year

We are very fortunate to have grandchildren living near enough to see often. 

We share meals and visits and fun.  

These boys are growing up so quickly.  They are big boys now and eat like it.  

I was remembering the days when these boys would hardly eat at our house.

 It was partly "not home food" and partly excitement. 

They still don't eat as much at our house as they eat at home.  It's amazing how much "casserole", one of their Dad's signature dishes they can put away now. 

They will eat their parents out of house and home. 

We are entering a new age of our life.  One of our grandsons is a teenager!

 

John Deere Fever

My husband has John Deere fever. 

 Before we were married I learned that green tractors, as long as they were the John Deere kind were the best, the only kind of tractors to have.  I learned about the styles and how the numbers changed over the years.  We didn't have one.  We didn't need one. And then we bought our current home with too much lawn to mow with a push mower and our first riding lawn mower was a John Deere.  I don't remember now how we got the 2630 for a garden tractor that isn't used anymore. We got a larger riding mower. When we started our business, Jim bought a nice little garden tractor with a loader bucket that he used there until he got mini-excavators.  Our renters of the farm bought and gave to Jim the JD B that his dad bought brand new, back in the day and has since been restored as earlier blog posts will show.  After Jim got that B, he traded another B he bought just before for an MT intending 

to restore it and buy a cultivator to use in the garden.

 He's been wanting a zero-turn mower for years and he bought one last year with our stimulus money.

That's where our John Deere story stood.

Until...the aforementioned neighbor told Jim he saw a plow on an online auction from Illinois for an MT so Jim went
to look and found not only the plow, but also a cultivator and a mower.

AND, a running MT, which Jim didn't need since he has one.  He decided that buying this working tractor wouldn't cost anymore than restoring the old one so he bought it. And the attachments. With the intent of restoring it as well. 

So, we went to Illinois to pick it up.

John Deere MT Lawn Ornament

Mere Words

I have always been fascinated with words.  My current words that I like to use just because I like to are exacerbate, recalcitrant, obstreperous, and tenacious. 

I grew up with a colorful language of "sayings" or idioms as they are called when you want to look them up, and I've always wanted to write them down, so I've been collecting, I had no idea I knew so many.  A few of these I use all the time, the majority I don't.  I've failed in passing them down.  

UPDATE! I have been collecting these right along, and I'm surprised at how many I use over the course of a few months. I've decided not to sort them all by anyway except alphabetically.  Some are idioms some are just funny ways of saying things.

According to Hoyle 

All in the same boat

All the bells and whistles

And there you are

Another day another dollar

Baptized by fire

Barking up the wrong tree

Batten down the hatches

Bats in your belfry

No use beating a dead horse

Beat around the bush

Beat the tar out of

Better late than never

Between a rock and a hard place

Black as pitch

Were here born in a barn?

Born with a silver spoon in your mouth

Bought/sold the farm

Bite the bullet

I have a bone to pick with you

A bun in the oven

Can't get blood from a stone/turnip

Can't carry a tune in a bucket

Can't fight your way out of a wet paper sack

Cash on the barrel-head

Caught with your pants down

Chances are slim to none

Changed his tune

Clear as mud

Comes back to bite you

Comes back to haunt you

Costs and arm and a leg

Cotton on to

Couple bricks shy of a load

As the crow flies

Cute as a bug's ear

Dark as a stack of black cats

Dead as a doornail

Deaf as a post

Dodged a bullet

Doesn't amount to a hill of beans

A dollar waiting on a dime

Don't count your chickens before they hatch

Don't judge a book by it's cover

Down to brass tacks

Down to the wire

Don't a be a stick in the mud

Don't go home until the last dog is hung.

Don't shoot 'til you see the whites of their eyes

Dressed to the nines

Driving like Jehu

Drop in the bucket

(Eat) like it's going out of style

Fall for it hook, line and sinker

Fell down on the job

First whack out of the box

Full as a tick

Funnier than all get out

Get it coming and going

Get it while the getting's good

Get out of my hair

Getting the upper hand

Getting your just desserts

Getting too big for your britches

Goes against the grain

*Going over like a lead balloon

Going to town (at something)

Get my goat

Grab the bull by the horns

The grass is greener on the other side of the fence

See the handwriting on the wall

Hanging by a thread

Handed on a silver platter

Happy as a clam (at high tide, some say)

Haven't seen hide nor hair of them

A hitch in my get-along

Hold your horses

Getting a heads up

Grasping at straws

Hanging by a thread

*I'm out of here like a herd of turtles

Hitting below the belt

Hit it on the nose (right on target)

Hit the spot

If the shoe fits, wear it.

I'll see you in the funny papers 

A fine kettle of fish!

Jumping through hoops

Kick the bucket

Kill two birds with one stone

Knee-high to a grasshopper

A leopard can't change it's spots

Lie through your teeth

Like a hot knife through butter

Living high on the hog

Like a bump/knot on a log

Like it's going out of style

Like pulling teeth

(Doing whatever) Like there's no tomorrow

Lying through their teeth

Living high on the hog

Living the life of Riley

Look down your nose at

Madder than a wet hen

Make hash of (something)

Make hay while the sun shines

Making a mountain out of a mole hill

For many a moon

Money burning a hole in your pocket

More than one way to skin a cat

More than you can shake a stick at

My way or the high way

Need that like a cat needs two tails

Needle in a haystack

Nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof

No holds barred

Not for all the tea in China

Not the only pebble on the beach

No time like the present

Not a leg to stand on

Nothing to sneeze at

Nothing to write home about

One brick shy of a load

One fell swoop

Open a can of worms

Out of the frying pan into the fire

Out of the mouth of babes

Passed with flying colors

Poor as a church mouse

Pot calling the kettle black

Pulling up by your bootstraps 

Pushing the envelope

Pussy footing around

Put a flea in their ear

Pull out all the stops

Put a brick on his head 

Put a lid on it

Put words in my mouth

Put your ducks in a row

Put your money where your mouth is

Put your foot in your mouth (Foot in mouth disease)

Quit beating around the bush

Right up my alley

Raining cats and dogs

Runs like a faucet (noses)

Sawing logs (sleeping heavily or snoring)

Saved by the bell

Scraping the bottom of the barrel

Scared the liver out of me

I haven't seen hide nor hair of (them)

Shoot yourself in the foot.

Sick a a dog

Six on on and half dozen of another

Slip through the cracks

Slow and steady wins the race

Slow as molasses in January

Speak now or forever hold your peace

Straight from the horse's mouth

Starting on a shoestring

Step up to the plate

Sticks in my craw

Stick to your guns

Stir the pot

Stopped dead in their tracks

Six ways from Sunday

Shot himself in the foot

Slower than molasses in January

Snug as a bug in a rug

Switch horses mid-stream

Take a gander at

Take a leaf out of (someone's) book

Takes to it like a duck to water

That's the way the cookie crumbles

There's egg on your face

The shoe's on the other foot

The tail wagging the dog

'Til the cows come home

Throw in the towel

Took the starch right out of me

Tough row to hoe

Turn over a new leaf

Two shakes of a (dead) lamb's tail

Up a creek without a paddle

Up one side and down another

Upset the apple cart

Water off a duck's back

A watched pot never boils

Were you born in a barn?

Whatever floats your boat

What's good for the goose is good for the gander

Work to death

The whole nine yards

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink

You make a better door than window

 

Other words

At loggerheads

Blowing up a storm

Bound and determined

A bum steer

Cabbage onto

Catty-corner (kitty-corner)

Cattywampus (catawampus kittywampus )

Chintzy

Chivvy

Cockeyed

Comeuppance

Cotton on to

Crystal clear

Cut and dried

Dead to the world

Dig in your heels

Don't piddle around

Fair to middling

Faster than all get out

Feel like I've been run over by a truck

Fit as a fiddle

First dibs

Flat broke

For crying out loud!

For Pete's sake

Get on the ball

Get up and go

Get your goat

Gist

Hidden up your sleeve

Hit like a ton of bricks

Madder than hops

My get up and go has got up and went

Gumption

Hankering after

Hitch in my git-along

Hoofing it

I reckon so

I have a mind to

Kerfluffle

My old stomping grounds

No spring chicken

Off kilter

Over yonder

Peter out

Plumb crazy (or plumb whatever)

Pulling my leg

Like pulling teeth

Put words in my mouth

Shaking like a leaf/Shaking in their boots

Silver lining

Sitting duck

Slept like a log

Smack dab in the middle of

Splitting hairs

Spot on

Stomping grounds

Stove up

Take a gander at

Tongue lashing

Two left feet

Under your belt (it's done)

Up to snuff

When pigs fly

 

Offered by others

Shanks mare

Went to Valhalla

These sort of sayings and word usage may be native only to certain parts of the country.

I use these and my dad is on the hunt to find more.  I learned them at home.

*Absolute favorites.

Second list