Only drank water in August. Hello September!

Had a Diet Mountain Dew for lunch this afternoon. That is not unusual as Mountain Dew is one of my favorite drinks. In August I decided to drink only water for the entire month. Liking to title my endeavors, I called it Agua only August.

Agua only August was more difficult and less rewarding for me than No junk food June had been. The truth is, in my wife's vocabulary, I am a drinkaholic. I am constantly drinking something. More often than not it's a soda. Because of the HFCS in most sodas, I have switched to diet. But those also have a boatload of chemicals in them. So I decided to give them up entirely for a month and drink only water.

The problem was that I often forgot to drink water and I was eating a load of fiber, so I was often bloated. I finally got into the swim of drinking only water, but it was still difficult. The hardest time was the weekend we went camping. When I was a kid, we were never allowed to drink pop. Except, I should say, on special occasions. Camping was one of those special occasions and for 4-5 weekends and 2 full weeks every summer we drank pop, and plenty of it. As a result, it seemed unnatural for me not to drink pop on the trip.

Before I get the nasty comments that I received for turning the TV off for the summer or having the whole family forgo sugar and junk food in June, let me say that the water restrictions were for me only. Amy and the kids were free to drink what they usually drink.

A little less than 1/2 way through August, Amy handed me some concoction she had made in the blender and asked me to try it. I am often sampling her wares so the request was not unusual. A few minutes later I realized that I had just drank something other than water and was very upset I had not met my goal.

Amy assured me that what she had given me was not technically a drink. It was a smoothie composed of bananas, blueberries and strawberries with no other liquid added. She said it was the equivalent of eating those fruits and should not count against me as a beverage.

Well if she was wrong, I certainly will not be the first man to be misled by his wife as far as fruit is concerned. What she said made sense to me and I "drank" several of her smoothies over the remainder of the month with out being paralyzed by guilt nor shame.

In these first few days of September, I have had 1 or 2 sodas and a few glasses of milk. The August experience has taught me that if I can knock off pop entirely for a month, that I should be able also to drink it in moderation. While it is nice to have more choices available, I am finding that I am reaching for water more now than I would have before.

Next Time: Six Word Saturday

Happy 10th birthday to our Bunny Girl

Today is my little bunny girl's 10th birthday. As far as bunnies go she is not very fast. She went form zero to ten in ten years!!!

We gave her her very own bunny on Saturday as her present. You can read more about said bunny by clicking HERE To commemorate her birthday I am giving her a revised copy of a short story I wrote for her when she was 3. It was a Christmas present at the time. I will share it here also. Let me present ...

The Forgetful Bunny

My name is Billy Bunny and I have a sad story to tell. It all began the Thursday morning after Easter. Thursdays are some of my toughest days. They are so close to Fridays you can feel it, but they are still deeply rooted in Mondays. This particular Thursday was the Thursdayest! I woke up late and all my bunny brothers and sisters had used all the hot water, so I had to have cold water for my shower. On top of that, all the yummy carrot porridge was gone and I only got a woeful amount of twigs and berries. Twigs and berries are okay for some, but when your mouth wakes up expecting carrot porridge, twigs and berries just won’t do it.

I almost missed the bus and when I got to school, my best friend Jeremy Jumping Hare was mad at me. On Monday, Jeremy had come over with all his Easter eggs and we had played with them until we went out to play bunny ball. Jeremy left the eggs at my house. When it began to get dark, Jeremy went right home because his house is very close to the bunny ball field.

Jeremy told me don’t forget to bring the eggs to school tomorrow. But you know what? On Tuesday, I forgot! Jeremy understood cause he knows I can be a very forgetful Bunny.

I forgot again on Wednesday and this time, Jeremy was not so understanding. I promised him I would not forget on Thursday. But Thursday morning was so Thursdayish, I clean forgot!

I gave Jeremy my best shrug and was right about to promise that Friday, carrot porridge or no carrot porridge, he would have his eggs back. But before I could begin he said:

“Listen, Billy Bunny! If my eggs are more important to you than being friends, you can keep them! But we won’t ever be friends again."

That is my sad sad story. Jeremy Jumping Hare doesn’t want to be my friend anymore. He and I have been best bunny buddies since we could hardly hop. If I can only have one friend over to stay the night, it is always Jeremy. When I buy bunny ball cards, I always give my doubles to Jeremy, even if he doesn’t have any good trades.

It is still Thursday, I just got home on the bus. I got aninvitation to Emma Roller’s bunny party, but I don’t even want to go. Jeremy will be there. and we’d usually hang out and have lots of fun. What fun is a party when your friend isn’t your friend anymore?

I know what I’ll do! I’ll march right over to the meadow and find Jeremy. I am sure he is jumping in the high clover. Jeremy always jumps in the high clover when he’s mad.

Here I go march, march, march. I see Jeremy and give him the eggs and say:

"Even if we can’t be friends any more I want you to have your eggs."

Then I give him my only Roddy Rabbit bunny ball card. Roddy Rabbit is the best bunny baller ever! His cards are harder to come by than either Hop Harrelson's or Sweet Bunny Brown's .

Jeremy takes the eggs and the card and says we can still be friends. I’m going to see him tomorrow at Emma’s party!

Not a bad day, even for a Thursday!

We love you bunny! Happy Birthday!

Special Thanks to Write Anything for including this in the October Carnival of Creativity.

Next Time: Agua only August

A Place for Everything; Everything on Floor.

WFMW is having a special themed edition on organizational tips today. Organization is not one of my strong suits as my title suggests. My late brother made that wry observation once, noting that while I often had an elaborate organizational system nothing ever seemed to get where it was supposed to be.

So why am I just not laying low until next week? A good question. I think what I want to share today is what I would title as a "Works For Me" in progress, something that I chronically struggle with but hope to subdue someday.

Here are some ways I am trying to get Organization to work for me:

• Looking through the mail.

Before: Stopping everything I was doing to get the mail when it came in and invariably leaving junk mail and catalogues I "was going to get to" all over the house.

Now: Try to wait until I am able to deal with the mail to take it out of the box. Go through mail near garbage can so I can throw away all junk immediately.

Working On: To be able to deal with all mail in one setting putting bills and correspondence where they belong and disposing of rest.

• Keeping house in order.

Before: Leaving job after job 1/2 done with idea of getting to later. Dealing with cleaning and organization on as needed or crisis to crisis basis.

Current: Attempting to order as I go. Finding that I often still am under the command of the tyranny of the urgent. I also have tinkered with "multitasking" which usually ends with a 1/2 cleaned mess in every room and a frazzled and frustrated me.

Working on: To finish one job completely before moving on with another. This isn't to say that I can't have the lunch in the oven while I'm finishing the morning lessons. But the idea of helping one kid cook ramen, one with a computerized math lesson, and one with math at the table simultaneously while emptying the dishwasher is now a complete anathema to me.

• Involving the children with the household tasks.

Before: Spend most of my day coaxing the children to do minimal amounts of work and generally having to redo their work myself.

Current: Every one has a routine in the morning that is to be completed before school starts. I try to split up tasks like preparing for or cleaning up a meal so each child can participate to their abilities. I still find myself cleaning up after them much more often than I'd like.

Working On: Breaking responsibilities in component parts and assigning them in advance. For example: Emma is in charge of feeding the bunny and replacing his hay each morning. Charlie changes his water bottle. I empty the bunny's tray each day. Emma is teaching Lucy how to brush the bunny's fur and they will rotate that job. Charlie, Emma and I rotate vacuuming the area where the bunny's cage is. I also am working to have them complete a job without my intervention.

So working on getting organized works for me. To see what works for those less organizationally challenged than myself step on over to WE ARE THAT FAMILY. To see all my other WFMW posts click Here.

Next Time: Hoppy Birthday

Giving September it's due and avoiding plagarism

Blog Insider - A look at the widgets, gadgets, and what nots of Home School Dad.

Tonight's Episode: 7 Word September

NEWSFLASH: September is the ninth month of the year. September is the ninth We're all cool with that, right? Well, if September is the ninth month, why does the prefix Sept mean seventh? November has the proper prefix for ninth and it's the eleventh month. What's with that?

Well, September would be the seventh month, if it weren't for the Cesarean section of the calendar. July and August are name for those great rulers of old, Julius and Augustus Caesar.

Imagine you're on the month naming committee. You have 10 perfectly good names for months already; the last 4 actually mean the seventh through tenth months, respectively. Then the Emperor's people come in and say, "Hey! Don't forget about Julie and Augie. We need months for them too you know!

So, what do you do? The only way to keep the numbered months in their correct place is to put July and August at the end of the year. That doesn't work with the Emperor's people. Who wants to have a July pool party when it's 40 degrees out and all the leaves are off the ground and in the pool?

September through December don't mean what they're supposed to mean and every body's okay with that?!? I for one don't plan to sit idly by while September gets shafted. Here's what I'm doing about it:

All this month I will have September embrace it's seveness by titling all my posts with exactly seven words. I got the idea from Cate at Show My Face dot com. Each Saturday she hosts SIX WORD SATURDAY, where people sum up their lives in six words and then write 3-400 more to explain their six.

I was a little concerned about running with this idea for fear of stepping on her toes. I talked to her about it and she says her toes don't mind. I even have a special 7 word September/ Six Word Saturday tie in planned. Tune in Saturdays to see what I have cooking.

If you're not into minutiae, skip ahead to the next paragraph. As you may have observed, I end all my posts with a blurb about what is coming in the next post. I usually just write the title of the upcoming article. For September I will just say the upcoming subject. That way, no one will know the seven word title until the actual post, That's me, Mr. Suspense Builder.

Welcome back non minutiae people. If anyone, minutiae likers or not, would like to give September it's due you can try ant of the following:

• Title all your blog posts with seven words
• Give $7.00 to each of your followers
• Give away a copy of 7 brides for 7 brothers
• Start a petition to have 7-up produce a September 7 pack.

Next Time: WFMW Themed Edition

A Bunny at Last

When my oldest daughter was 4 months old, my mom gave her a red stuffed bunny for her first Christmas. She named him red bunny and he became her favorite toy and started her life long love for bunnies. Not only would she sleep with it, each and every night, she would also suck on its ear, as if it was a pacifier. She did this so much that the ear became black and her teeth started getting black marks on them. We tried to have her switch ears to no avail. In the end, we had to cut off the bunnies ear making him Vincent Van Bunny.

Now she has had a couple of dozen stuffed bunnies over the years, none of them as important to her as red bunny. Until, I should say, a few years ago at her cousin's birthday party at build-a-bear when she brought home Alice. Alice became her new best friend and bedtime companion. The great thing about Alice for us was that she was the best consequence we could ever use to discipline her. When we'd ask her to bring Alice to us, and she knew we meant business!



Soon after she got red bunny, she became enamored with real bunnies and especially the possibility of owning one. She began to learn the ins and outs of the bunny business. When she was almost 3, she taught me that baby bunnies are called kittens. When she was about 5, to curb the requests for a bunny, we told her that when she was 10, we would get a pet. Well quite honestly, we never quite expected her to become 10. But 5 +5 is alas, 10 and today I bought my bunny her first real bunny.



About 6 weeks ago she and I went bunny searching at the Kane County Fair. We encountered a girl who had 6, 2 week old bunnies and was willing to sell one to us after they were weaned. Emma was keen on getting a girl bunny and the seller was pretty sure that at least one of the kittens would be a girl. Earlier this week, I contacted the seller and alas, all 6 kittens were boys. She did have a 6 month old doe, and she was willing to sell her. Bunny decided that she would rather have an 8 week boy than a 6 month girl. Yesterday we bought all the needed equipment and today we bought the bunny, a grey jersey wooley, which Bunny has named Smoky. In a future post, I will put up pictures of the 3 most significant bunnies (stuffed and otherwise) in her life. But the most significant bunny in MY life is my little bunny girl!

Next Time: 7 Word September