Tag Archives: waken

Why are the birds so happy? Don’t they know it’s morning?

Posted on May 12, 2011 | Leave a comment

Hi Everyone!

It’s morning again, and I am still trying to shake off the tiredness that comes just from having to wake up before 6 (or 7 or 8 ) in the morning, in between rescuing various articles of clothing from Darwin this morning – so far I have rescued a shoe (in time to prevent damage) and a sock (already crippled for life, but just as a matter of principle I don’t think I should let him keep it.) 

Darwin

But outside, even with the windows shut, I can hear the many birds that inhabit the woods around our neighborhood chirping at the top of their lungs.  It’s a pleasant enough sound, but it does cause me to wonder, WHY DON’T THEY EVER SLEEP IN? 

Exhibit A: The Rooster That Crows at Dawn

If you are up early enough (and I try very hard not to be) they are even happier and louder immediately before sunrise.  WHY?  They don’t have to be anywhere at any particular time, although all that foraging for food certainly does take a lot of time, but always are up at the (pre-)crack of dawn anyhow.  They must have a lot of the foraging done before noon, because by that time of the day, at least our suburban birds have grown for the most part silent, except for the occasional red-winged black bird that likes to sit on telephone polls and make sporadic cries all afternoon.  The mocking birds will occasionally get into a spat around mid-day too, but other than that it gets pretty quiet. 

The Red-Winged Blackbird; Photo by Alan D. Wilson

Are they able to get up so early because they get to take a nap mid-day?  If that’s the case, how do I sign up for the whole mid-day nap thing?  I lost the right to take a mid-day nap somewhere around kindergarten and would really like to re-claim it at some point!  I kept begging Kayla to hold onto her nap privileges as long as she could when she was in pre-school and kindergarten, but alas, like most short-sighted 5 and 6 year olds, she couldn’t wait until she didn’t have to take one anymore!  The birds get to keep nap time; why can’t I?   

 All of which proves yet again that I am NOT a morning person.  I’m not the only one  – I suspect the Owl inherited the night because he didn’t hold with all this bright and perky morning stuff either!

The Great Horned Owl, taken by Peter Manidis (AKA falxius)

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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Posted in Just stuff..., Reflection, working mom

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Wake-Up Call, Lunch Money and Funny Bone

Posted on March 11, 2011 | 2 comments

Hi Everyone!

The Best Alarm Clock in the World!

  • Wake-up Call

I confess that I hoped to be writing this much later than I am, since, as a working mom, I had a rare opportunity to sleep in on a weekday, but Mandy had other ideas.  Mark got up at his regular time, and then after about fifteen minutes, Mandy jumped up on the bed and stood there quietly behind me for about 30 seconds.  (It is even odds as to whether this was her own idea or whether Tyra was egging her on.)  When I didn’t pay any attention, then she took her nose, and touched it gently and sweetly to my ear.   I continued to ignore her, so after another pause, she deliberately stepped on my side with her front paws, took another step so that I was between her front and back paws, finished walking over me with her back paws and jumped off the bed and circled around to the other side.  I still continued to ignore her, so she repeated the walk-over.  However, this time instead of circling around to the other side of the bed, she escalated by turning back to where she could reach my face from the floor , waited another few seconds and when I still didn’t get up, she started licking my face furiously, at which time I really had no choice but to start laughing and get up.  If I had rolled over to ignore her yet again, her next step would have been to jump up on the bed and walk on my hair.  That hurts!

  • Lunch Money

Kayla was worried this morning – she might miss second breakfast.  Let me explain.  The school sends home each Thursday the amount of lunch money remaining in her account.  This Thursday, she did not have a balance, but we owed the school 10 cents.  If you owe the school or have a zero balance, you cannot have breakfast until money is posted back in your account.  Although I am sending a check with her today, it won’t be placed into her account until right before lunch, so breakfast at school will not be available.  She explained all this to Mark, who came out to check if I had lunch money to send with her.  As Mark said to me, “She told me she gets first breakfast (at home), second breakfast at school, lunch at school, snack at school, snack at Learning Lodge and she says you’re usually good for a snack right when the two of you get home, but she is worried she about missing second breakfast in case they have cheese grits!”  I gave her a dollar just in case the school was serving cheese grits and sent her away smiling.  Mark was buying her breakfast at McDonald’s, so she was getting extra food for first breakfast, too.  It reminds of the time when, a young and inexperienced couple with no children, we took our nephew, who was about Kayla’s age at the time, to the Kennedy Space Center, and he told his mother after the trip, “It was fun, but they only fed me three times a day!”

  • Funny Bone

I was walking by our kitchen desk area and hit my funny bone hard on the chair in the kitchen.  It was not, as anyone who has had this experience knows, funny at all.  It was one of those self-censoring moments – right when I hit, I started by saying “Gawww….” and remembered to shift streams to finish with “lly gee whilikers!” 

Have a great weekend everyone!

Nancy

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Posted in dogs, Out of the mouths of babes...., When things don't go as expected, working mom

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This and That

Posted on February 24, 2011 | Leave a comment

  1. I forced a very sleepy little girl out of hibernation this morning and into the cold, cruel world of getting ready for school, and she did NOT like it!  Her latest fad is to get up, grab her clothes, turn on the fireplace in the den and huddle in front of it while she gets dressed.  (No, it is not that cold in my house – well, sometimes it is, but not right now.)  It looks quite pitiful and Dickensy – I keep waiting for her to bring me her empty cereal bowl, look at me with mournful eyes and say in a tiny voice, “Please, ma’am, can I have some more?” 
  2. Wednesday is our busiest day, because Kayla has dance after school, which finishes up at 5:50, and then I have to feed her, get her home to change into her sneakers and then be at the church by 6:15.  We usually are home by about 7:45 p.m.  Unfortunately, homework does not regulate itself according to our schedule so on Wednesday nights when she has homework, I am trying to cram her head full of (usually) math in 15 minutes and still get her to bed on time.  It can be quite a drama filled experience.  Last night when we entered the car, I asked if she had homework, and Kayla said yes.  Once we were on the way to the church, she announced that she didn’t have homework after all; the teacher had decided to keep them from pulling the homework page out of their book after all.  The dilemma:  Should I double check the homework file to investigate the mysterious disappearing homework, or just take the statement at face value and hope for the best?  I’ll let you decide what I did…..
  3. Isn’t it nice to see families doing things together?  Last night the three of us participated in a joint parking project.  I was driving and trying to swing into the garage without hitting the other car.  I got advice from both Mark and Kayla (Mark:  Cut it as hard as you can to the left; Kayla:  You’re okay on my side!)  Of course they were sitting on the same side, so the instructions were a little conflicting, but I decided to go with the more experienced driver :).  Regardless of whose advice was better,  since everyone participated, it qualified as a group project.  Everyone was still speaking to everyone else when we finished, too!
  4. I have now seen about five tulip trees in full bloom.  They are so beautiful!  I really hope we don’t have a killing frost this year.  The Bradford pear trees buds are starting to get full, but they’re not ready to bloom yet.  It would be too early for them, anyhow.  I still haven’t seen any yellow bells, which is sort of odd for this time of year here.  If anyone has seen some, I sure would like to know about it! 

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