Let it be known that folding laundry is my very least favorite chore. This pile has been accumulating for two weeks, and I finally sat down and folded it all. They have a machine to wash them. They have a machine to dry them, but they haven’t figured out a machine to fold them. That would make laundry the most stress free part of running a house. I wonder if I could pay someone to fold my laundry for me. For anyone out there who hates folding laundry as much as I do, you are not alone!
While driving today, I passed a thistle field in bloom. It was a spectacular purple that I’m not used to seeing in my desert state without help from a gardener. When I realized the beautiful potential this plant has, I started imagining it in a completely desert environment, no human development around to make it a weed. How amazing would it be to just happen upon a huge field of this beautiful purple flower? Of course, as soon as you realized the death beneath the flower, you’d be disappointed that you couldn’t go through the field, but it’d be pretty just to look at all the same.
It’s a shame this weed is so noxious. The stem and leaves are prickly, so much so that my oldest only had to encounter it once to know to stay away. It can spread so easily that we have found some in our grass 50 feet away from our weed field. Digging it out of the ground is not enough to get rid of it, even before it goes to seed, as the roots run very deep.
Despite all of this, I didn’t bother digging any up this year, and I’ll probably pay the consequences next year, but it’s been incredibly fascinating to watch them grow. Our largest thistle is taller than me, and dominates the half of the garden that I’m not using this year. It looks ominous, and I can’t wait for the snow to kill it, so I can attempt to dig it up.
These are the best homemade fries ever. People will be asking for them over and over again, and they’re so simple that you’ll make them every time.
Ingredients
Instructions
This is my tree climber. This tree is actually a lilac bush, but don’t tell her that. She spends just about every second she can in this tree, and with her size body, it really is the perfect spot for her to relax.
When I was a kid, I bit my fingernails a lot. I bit them so far down that it would make my fingers hurt. My mom was constantly telling me that I needed to stop, and I think she even tried ways of making it unappealing to me, but they didn’t work.
In eighth grade, I decided that I was done biting my nails. I wanted my nails to look nice, and I didn’t want my fingers to hurt anymore. I evaluated the situation and realized that I liked to chew on things, and my nails happened to be the most convenient. So, I started chewing gum. If I was chewing gum, I had no need to bite my nails.
When my nails started growing back, I became annoyed at their length, and chewed them back down. In the midst of painful fingers, I realized that I needed to keep my nails short as well. So, I began clipping my fingernails once a week, and voila, I stopped biting my nails cold turkey.
The gum chewing did become a habit that replaced the habit of biting my nails, but after a few years of that, I grew tired of it, and stopped completely. Chewing gum is not even remotely appealing to me anymore. About once every five years, out of some freak nervousness, I bite my nails, and am reminded of why I stopped.
Teaching the names of colors is much easier than I thought it would be, and now that we’re in the thick of it, I don’t know why I thought it would be so difficult. As much as colors are lumped in with art, the names themselves are actually a language thing. Good writers describe things using colors when it is warranted, and as a parent, that’s exactly what you should do.
There’s no need to break out flash cards that will soon be torn to pieces or chewed on. Rather, talk to your child about all the different colors of things. “Where are your purple shoes? Do you see the green tree? Thank you for the pretty, pink flower.” This is a natural method that allows a child to learn at her own pace. Soon enough, she will be describing things to you using the colors you have taught her.
If you are the kind of parent that likes to evaluate if your efforts are paying off, feel free to ask, “What color is this tomato?” But, don’t worry or worse, over drill, if she can’t immediately answer, “Red.” She might need time to think about what you just asked, or to even figure out that you were asking her a question. She might not know what the word, “color,” means yet. Don’t fret. She’ll figure it out eventually. Just keep talking to her.
