Summer’s new but that doesn’t mean it has been uneventful
By By Michelle Blaylock, Mom’s Corner
Well, we are three weeks into summer vacation and as usual it has been eventful in the Blaylock home. It started with a daughter informing me she thought our lawnmower was broken. Well, let me just share the entire conversation.
"Why aren't you mowing?" I ask my daughter as she walked in the backdoor after a couple of minutes of mowing. My daughter responds with, "I can't. I think the lawnmower is broken." Then she just stops talking. I look up and ask the very irresponsible question: "What? Why would you think that? Your sister just finished mowing a few minutes ago and the lawnmower was fine then." My daughter looks at me as if I have just asked the most stupid question on the face of the planet, "Because it just threw red and brown stuff across the neighbor's yard."
At this point I am wondering if I should ask another question or not, but I cannot resist, "Huh? 'Threw red and brown stuff?' What do you mean? Did it stop running?" She says, "Um, I don't know I just quit mowing. It jumped kind of hard." At this point I do not bother asking anymore questions, I just call my oldest son to go look at the mower. He comes back in after a few minutes and says, "I don't think the lawnmower is broke. It still runs, but I bet Dad and I will need to re-sharpen the blades. She [my daughter] ran over a brick."
My daughter pipes up with, "I did not. The lawnmower did!" Okay, this is a PUSH lawnmower.
Our next "event" occurred while I was at a softball game. One of my oldest daughters called me and starts the call off with, not "Hi" or "Hello" but, "Mom, if we have to go to the emergency room do we need the insurance card?" Okay, I really think my children are trying to collect on my life insurance by giving me heart failure! After a few seconds to catch my breath and few questions I find out that one of daughters sliced about a three inch long piece of skin off of her shin while she was shaving her legs. Good Heavens!
Also along the shaving line one of my daughters comes downstairs from my bathroom and says to another sister, "What shaving cream in Mom's bathroom did you use?" The sister replies with, "The one in the red can on the bathtub." The first daughter says, "There isn't one on her tub. There's foaming dog shampoo, but not shaving cream." At that point we all kind of start laughing, after all it was too late to do anything else.
Now for a piece of advice, if a child breaks the glass in a picture frame it is very important that in the process of cleaning it up to be careful where your children are standing, because it is possible that you might turn around to carry the glass from the room and cut your daughter's arm open. It is really uncomfortable trying to explain to the triage nurse in the hospital emergency room how you managed to cut in your daughter's arm. Especially when the nurse asks your daughter how she did it and your daughter replies with, "I didn't, SHE did it." and looks at you. Yep, that was interesting.
I have always encouraged creativity and pretend play in my children. Sometimes I wonder if that was a good thing. For example, I have had one try to be Mary Poppins off my roof. My children have tried to roll a sibling down the hill in a 50 gallon plastic barrel just to see if it works.
So far this summer my children's most dangerous idea has been using a water hose, combined with a trampoline, dish soap, and the slide from the swing set.
I can hardly wait to see what the next five or six weeks hold. At least my life is never boring, occasionally heart stopping, but never boring! If you have a question or comment for Mom's Corner, please e-mail it to: moms-corner@juno.com
