Navigator

Lee has really gotten into maps in the last six months. At the zoo, he hardly looks up when we arrive at an exhibit, because he is busy selecting our next location. So, it did not surprise me when he snagged the schedule of events at Stone Mountain Christmas. He announced our first activity was to visit the Snow Angel. Once he got up there, it took him a minute to warm up to her, but he was really happy about his visit when she gave him a Hershey Kiss at the end. (Needless to say, KW did NOT participate.)

Now, Santa was a completely different story. (KW still did not participate.)

He jumped right in and told what he wanted - a pair of gloves, a pair of mittens, and a candycane. Santa tried to get some others ideas out of him, and finally got him to say he would like some surprises.

This was a strangely freeing and scary request.

Family Project

How do you get your kids to sit inside on a beautiful day while you watch Game Day for the SEC Championship? A family project, of course! A couple of months ago, my sister delivered a bookshelf to me from Memphis, and we converted it for our school room. We converted another bookshelf the same way for KW's room a while back, and this one proved to be just as entertaining.

They are dying for me to play "Galloping Horse", but that is Daddy's special game.

Rudolph, making sure I am able to have as much room as possible to work. :)

Clear Instructions

Several years ago, I went through a communications training at work. One of the exercises was to sit back-to-back with your partner. One person would look at a simple picture and give instructions to the other person on how to draw it without saying what any of the objects were in the picture. For example, I would say, "Draw a circle with lines coming out all around it in the upper left corner of the paper," to indicate my partner should draw the sun in the upper left corner. Except for a few cases, the exercise illustrated that we need to be much more clear in our communication to ensure that others know what we are really trying to ask them to do.

It did not surprise me, therefore, when I asked Lee to cut out the "e" and "i" the other day, and I turned around to find him very carefully cutting out each letter.

I had meant for him to cut the paper in half. It would have been helpful if I had said that.

Shoe Chaos

It seems no matter how many organizational elements I add to our shoe life, it remains chaotic.

Our most recent venture was to build a floating shoe rack. I thought ahead and we made two.

The goal was to empty B's nicer (work) shoes out of the basket, so they don't get beat up with the tennis shoes and my everyday shoes. Goal accomplished, but take a look at that basket.

We should have made three.

Leapin' Leaves

Bryan started the long fall of leaf maintenance last weekend, and he caught some great photos. The kids have been begging to get into the leaves, and I have been longing for something besides the ones in the street gutter for them to enjoy. It's a win-win!