7QT About Nearly Dying by Getting Run Over by a Plane and/or Taking a Bike Ride

1. I took the girls to have their photos taken on Monday. I was excited because it was the first time for us to have them done outdoors. Our photographer suggested a cool nature preserve behind our small local airport for the setting. It was such a pretty spot. She got photos of the girls under a willow tree and near a pond. Then we walked out behind a little wedding chapel where there was a huge field. As we were walking out further and further into the field, I noticed a man yelling and gesticulating wildly from an area closer to the airport. I looked behind us, thinking he was screaming at someone else “over there.” I gesticulated back “Are. you. yelling. at. us?” He just kept screaming. I was finally able to understand his words:

“Get off the runway!!!!! Get back! YOU’RE. ON. THE. RUNWAY!!!!!”

It was a field. With pretty little flowers. Behind a little wedding chapel. There were no signs posted saying, “Danger! Stay off this field or you will be run over by a plane” or anything. But we got off the field/”runway” right smartly anyway. Just to be on the safe side, of course.

2. I am not a great fan of the “bike ride.” We’ve gone on two this week. The first was a total mess of complaining and whining and sweat. Some from me, some from my kids. Miss is finally getting really good at riding her bike. Lass is not so good/interested. And Sis of course, is utterly dependent on me to help her pedal/steer her tricycle.

So our first bike ride went something like this: Miss rode mostly independently. Lass stopped pedaling and couldn’t get going again, then steered into the grass after I got her started. Then she stopped and I had to get her started again. Then she steered into the grass again, and so on. I had to repeatedly place Sis’s feet on her pedals so they wouldn’t get stuck under her trike while I pushed her (yes, my plan was to push and steer her the whole way, I’m totally dumb). Each time I stopped pushing her to get Lass started again, she’d climb off the trike and try to push it herself, but of course without steering it, so it just went in circles. I’d get her back in her seat, get her feet on the pedals, and start to push her again right about the time Lass went into the grass again. This was all before we even got to the end of our driveway. It also happened to be on the hottest day of the summer so far. We barely made it to the next house on our street before the constant complaining plus the ridiculously slow movement and profuse sweating prompted me to say, “Great bike ride. Time to turn around!!”

I got less dumb for our second bike ride.

We made it all the way around to the end of the cul de sac behind our street and back, with no complaining or whining. Mom win.

3. Lass’s birthday is in August. She has declared that she wants to have a rubber ducky/fish-themed birthday party.

Would it be wrong for me to gently try to persuade her to go with something else? Maybe something like an “Olaf in Summer” party, so I could totally steal all of the ideas from this post? I really want to make a Melted Olaf Snow Globe. I know. It’s not about me. But I’m pretty sure my kids would go nuts over the big ice-blocks-on-a-sled race.

4. I am so excited that the ladies in my Bible study and I are starting a Little Flowers Girls’ Club for our daughters. It’s kind of like Daisies or American Heritage Girls but Catholic.

Between us Bible-study ladies we have a gajillion daughters, and at least 10 of them are of the age to participate in the club right now (5-12). Super Friend and I are teaching/hosting the first meeting a week from Monday. Miss and I are both giddy with anticipation.

5. I’ve been having a bit of a lazy parenting week. Or maybe more of a lazy dinner-making week. We had our photo appointment/near-death experience on Monday in the late afternoon, so I asked my husband to order pizza. Tuesday he had a meeting, so I served up leftover pizza for dinner. Wednesday he had another meeting, so I indulged myself and picked up Taco Bell for myself and the girls. I haven’t had TB in years, and the girls have never eaten it. But it’s one of those things that I just really must eat when I’m in the mood. So, soft tacos all around.

Except for me. MexiMelt. Yum.

I just realized that last night my husband ate my last leftover MexiMelt along with most of the rest of the TacoBell leftovers. So. Busted.

6. I have started reading one of my favorite books of all time to my kids.

Miss is the only one even remotely interested, but I just love sharing this lovely prose with them, even if they don’t get into the story too much yet.

Reading to a captive audience at lunchtime always helps.

7. We’re going to Minnesota this weekend to visit family and have band practice for the Labor Day Party. There are plans for a park tour and cook out and even a moms’ night out. Plus lots of music of course. It might be epic. Photos may be forthcoming.

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Have a great weekend!