Hen Pecked

So it's fall here at the old homestead. Better known as the our Apartment On The Second Floor. I promise some pics this week on some of my fall projects. After I get my house cleaned. If I let you see the condition of our humble abode now I would probably have to go into hiding for a least a year. And a half. The shame alone would drive me into seclusion. Which now that I think about it might not be a bad idea. I need some alone time.

In the meantime I thought I would share a few thoughts and pictures from our wise old resident sage. Not The Studly Muffin. I mean the other wise old resident sage. Mr. Josiah...who will be turning 11 in just over a month. What??? How did that sweet baby grow so fast? And how can I be the mother of an 11-year-old? Okay. So some of my High Schools peers are parents to young adults and some are even have grandchildren, but in my head I'm still like 16.


This isn't the best quality. But it does give some indication of the quirky personality of my guy. Who takes a picture of the bottom of their own foot? It's just plain weird. Anytime I tell Josiah he's being weird he asks me, "But aren't you weird, Mom?" Point taken.

I assure you I haven't let Josiah loose on the world with sharp objects. Unless he's within arm's reach. He loves to help me in the kitchen. At least to cook. He tells me he's "not big on washing dishes." Sigh. Who is, my son, Who is. Here he is helping prepare a casserole to go in my handy dandy Bean Pot (of which I would love to sell you one). He also is dressed for the occasion. Every chef needs a cool Hawaiian shirt and a Fedora.

I want to also assure you that this sight is a rarity in my home. Something sugary and gooey on my kitchen cabinet. It just ain't happenin' nowadays. But Josiah wanted to take a treat to his Royal Ranger group (they were working on their cooking badge) and this was it. He made them himself (with my verbal coaching, of course). I did partake. That is my confession. I had one. But considering I've lost (drum roll please) 55 pounds as of this week it didn't hurt me too much.

Another self portrait. He's at my mom and dad's farm. These are my mom's reading glasses.

He also tried them on the cat. I shared this pic some weeks back. It still cracks me up. She's such a good cat. And she loves Josiah with all she can muster. Which is quite a bit.

Speak of love. This week one of our read aloud's was Washington Irving's short story, Rip Van Winkle.  I need to first encourage any readers with kids to expose them to the classics. Don't be afraid of what might be perceived as archaic language or complicated verbage. Bring out the dictionary. Talk about it. I made several copies of the story (which I found in nice e-form with illustrations) and we gathered around with highlighters in hand. My nephew, Christopher, was over for school that day and we had a lot of fun reading it. When I was little and read so much (many books that were considered beyond my years) my mom set me up with a little notebook to write down words I didn't understand. We would look them up together. We did the same this week with Rip Van Winkle only we took advantage of our brightly colored highlighters. The boys loved it.

Rip Van Winkle is about an easy-going guy with an aversion to "profitable labor." He is also described as a "hen-pecked husband." I explained this little piece of the story as Rip Van Winkle's wife being hard to live with sometimes. Josiah perked up and said, "Mom! That's just like you!"

Ouch.

Then again he later complimented me and told me that my hair looked just like Anakin Skywalker's hair in Star Wars Episode 3. I'll take it where I can get it.