Frosty the Snowman

A little holiday cheer from Peter, Erik, and Kurt.

Who is this guy?

Hint: The photo is about 45 years ago.

Kurt wins 10-0

Kurt won this weekend 10-0 against a kid that beat him last year.

Childhood Upbringing

We may become a host family for Safe Families for Children.  The application required a description of my childhood.  Here's what I wrote:

"My parents have been married for 45 years.  I grew up in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and our family had six kids - all boys except the youngest (Kadi).  As boys, we had an idyllic childhood.  We lived on a small tree nursery farm w/ a creek that we fished in a lot.  The country roads didn't have much traffic, and we could ride our bikes into town or to nearby dairy farms where we would build forts in hay barns with our friends.  Our father was a pilot.  He had a grass runway on the farm, and a small airplane.  He taught us how to fly.  I love my dad, adore my mother, and enjoy great relationships with my siblings.  My parents disciplined us in a variety of ways.  As young kids we would sit in a coat closet for most offenses, and get the belt for the major ones.  As we got older we lost our bike privileges and car privileges.  We kept a family journal (the blue book), which allowed for open communication and entertainment.  We always had chores, ranging from household to outdoor farm duties."

Fall Plantings

The spring is the most popular time of year to plant trees, but fall plantings have a better chance of survival. New nursery trees always need a good watering for the first 6 months.  When you plant in the spring, the natural moisture is good for the first 2-3 months, but then you gotta be diligent about watering through the summer.  When you plant in the fall you only have to water for a couple months before the tree goes dormant for the winter. Then it has 4 good months of spring moisture after that. I still try to water through the summer, but it's OK when it's missed.

Hello and Goodbye

Owning a riding lawnmower is a lot like owning a car.  You grow attached to it.  Or maybe I'm just a little sentimental because we got our little green mower when we first moved into our house - before we had kids.  I loved the simplicity of not having a battery or electrical system (pull start).  But our friend Tim offered us his big jobber, and we couldn't say no.

Conflict Resolution

It usually starts with a little shouting or crying and sometimes escalates into an all out brawl.  And now we have a new rule when it ends with one kid telling us that the other did something bad.  Kids needs to learn how to settle their own disagreements.  So when they ask us to get involved we now give them a 5-minute timeout together.  If they still want our involvement at the end of the 5-minutes, we become Judge Judy and get to the bottom of it.  If one kid is completely innocent, the guilty one gets a consequence.  But this is rarely the case, so the other part is that they both get a BIG TIME consequence if we find fault in both of them.  It's been about 2 months, and they rarely come to us anymore, and when they do, they always seem to have things worked out at the end of the five minutes.

Happy 70th Popper!

Pop turned 70 one week ago today. We celebrated in Grand Haven with an early morning fishing charter on Lake Michigan, and then a dinner in Spring Lake where the restaurant served up the fish we caught.

War on the Mosquitoes!

The mosquitoes can get pretty bad in our area because of all the shade and moisture. But we are now armed with the Flowtron 80-watt mosquito zapper! I'm somewhat skeptical of the effectiveness it'll have on the local mosquito population, but I was sold on it when a friend described the satisfaction he gets while sitting on his back deck listening to them being fried.

Last Day of School

Today was the last day of school for the boys. Last week was filled with fun including field day, and whacky hair day. We're looking forward to a great summer!

Raising Boys

Soon after becoming a dad I read this book, Raising Boys by Steve Biddulph. The author describes 3 stages of boyhood.

1) Birth to 6 years - where boys get most of their security and comfort from mom. Even though dad plays a big role, they are basically a momma's boy.
2) Age 6 to 14 - they adore their mom but they get interested in becoming a man and being more like dad. This is the time for dad's to really step up.
3) Age 14+ - boys will pull back from their parents, and they need influence from good male mentors such as coaches, teachers, grandpa, etc.

So... we are solidly in the Stage 2 area with all 3 boys (Kurt-6, Erik-7, Peter-9). It's daddyo time!

Wrestling

I have mixed emotions about my kids wrestling. I love the sport, and it's a great character builder. But it's tough for the kids, and it's hard on parents. There are long hours of waiting for only a few minutes of action, injuries are likely and somewhat common. On the upside, it helps establish self esteem when they do good, and it teaches humility when they get beat. And boys just like to wrestle. At home we are always saying "no" and "stop it", but when they go to wrestling we can say "go for it and have fun".

Crazyness

It's been a crazy new year. Our basement sprung a leak on Christmas morning. We spent the morning celebrating Christmas, and then the afternoon and evening trying to control the water seepage. During the following week we moved most of the furniture, pulled back all the carpet, and fixed 2 big cracks in the wall. We thought it was fixed, but after 2 weeks it was all wet again. So last week we trenched the inside of the footing and installed drain tile and a new sump. It's a real mess. Today was an especially busy and chaotic day, and Peter came to me and told me a new poem he thought up. I thought it was nice.

Blast at sea,
listen to me,
to the vast,
down the mast.