He's crazy about Barney...

and I'm not talking about a purple dinosaur.

No, the most popular game in our house right now is "Sneaky Guy." We don't allow Munchkin to watch much TV, but he has seen maybe four episodes of Mission Impossible with Daddy. His favorite character is Barney, since Barney is the one with the tool bag. The game is escalating. I am now "Cinnamon," Scott is "Mr. Phelps," and Christopher Robin plays "Willie." Munchkin, as Barney, is the one who gets to wriggle through tight places and make holes with his drill. I am frequently called upon to sing the "Sneaky Guy Song." If you come to visit, watch out for the devices he's laid out on the rug to puncture the tires of the bad guys. :)

Unanswerable question

Can anybody help Munchkin out? He wants to know:

If a bear tranquilizes a dinosaur, what will he do?

How to get a preschooler to pick up his toys...

Clean-up before bedtime is usually frustrating. All day long Munchkin spreads his things from one end of the house to the other and then, when it's time to pick up, he straggles, plays with each toy before he returns it to his room, has to carry each individual item in his dump truck, accidently knocks down the lego house we let him leave up and then wants to rebuild it, etc. You get the picture.

This evening, the phone rang right at the start of clean-up time. It was Grandpa calling long distance for Munchkin. I confess, my first thought was that it would just be another way for Munchkin to try to get out of having to put his things away. I handed Munchkin the phone and then watched in amazement as he walked briskly back and forth from the living room to his bedroom. With one hand he held the phone and carried on a very cohesive conversation with Grandpa, and with the other hand he picked up toy after toy and put them where they belonged. He had almost the entire job done before the phone call ended and he returned to normal behavior. If we hadn't seen it for ourselves, we wouldn't have believed it.

Elephant update

It's been a slow week for blogging, but there's a reason. I had my "Purple Elephant" story edited by a professional children's book editor, and she gave me a lot of work to do (ouch!). But after I got over the initial shock, I realize that she had good suggestions and so I've been editing every evening.

Just today, I got an email from Kim, who is drawing the illustrations, and she's got them well underway. Maybe I'll get to see some more next week. :) In the meantime, here's a teaser: What's the purple elephant holding in his trunk?

In the words of Bob the Builder...

Can we fix the White House?

Yes, we can!

Congratulations Mr. President! God bless you!

Munchkin wants to remodel it, too :)

Home, Mommy!

It's been so stinkin' cold here in the Willamette valley, and reports of such balmy weather over at the coast, that we decided to go there and get warm! Amazing, but true, it was 26 degrees at home and when we got to the beach it was 60 degrees and counting.

After a lovely day, time came for us to leave and since I was at the wheel, Scott said, "Take us home, James." Munchkin protested that Mommy's name wasn't James. We explained that it was an expression, etc.

Munchkin thought about it for a minute or two and then declared, "Construction, James!"

Sob Story

Most of the time, Munchkin's memory is incredible. Other times, his "memory" is pure imagination. This afternoon, he told a whopper that cracked me up. Try to hear it with a preschooler's most pathetic voice:

One time I had to go to the doctor to get a shot...
and I wanted a band-aid with a picture of a fireman on it...
but they gave me a band-aid with George Bush on it...
(even more pathetic)
I didn't like that.

Why I love local

Saturday morning I received a pleasant email surprise -- a note from the owner of a local farmstand telling me that she would be at a new little farmers' market that's running through the winter. Wow! One of my favorite Christmas presents was a woven basket from Ghana that will be just perfect for buying veggies from the farmers' market. I thought I'd have to wait until April to use it! And I was out of everything!

It didn't take me long to pack up the basket and the Munchkin and head a short ways across town to the little market. It was cute, cute, cute and next to a very promising bakery I also didn't know about. We first visited the farmer who sent the email to thank her. I asked if she'd brought the pears my husband adores and she said no, but she'd bring me some next week.

Second, I visited a larger booth to pick up some staples. The first thing I picked up were some large leeks. The college-age guy working the booth leaned over and whispered, "I'll give you a tip! The leeks are cheaper at the other booth, and they're organic!" Surprised, I put his leeks back and then bought probably more onions and potatoes than I'd planned just because he was so nice. As I walked away, he again pointed out what booth I should go to for the leeks.

On our way to get the leeks, I noticed eggs at a booth that also contained a row of knit stocking caps. Just that morning, I realized Munchkin had outgrown his knit hat -- it was hard to even keep it on his head! Feeling a little cold, I asked the lady if she had any hats Munchkin's size. She found one, but it didn't have ear flaps and it was kind of in "girl" colors. When I put it back, she offered to knit a hat for Munchkin in whatever color I'd like. She didn't even take my name, just said that the hat would be there next week. I was so delighted that I forgot to buy the eggs.

Finally, we went to the leek booth. Sure enough, the leeks were half the price and they looked great. I picked up broccoli and cabbage, too, as it looked like they didn't have a lot of business.

That was it -- just four booths. We'll be back next week to pick up the pears, the hat, the eggs and more veggies. I love buying locally. The fact that the food is fresher and tastes better is an added bonus.

Maybe He went to Home Depot

Yesterday I read to Munchkin out of his "God book." As we read the story of Noah, Munchkin's ears perked up when we got to the part about God sealing up the door of the ark. He asked, " How did God seal the door?"

I said, "I don't know, He just did."

Munchkin asked, "Did He use caulking?"

Sneak peek

Just wanted to tantalize my readers with a snippet of the cover illustration for "The Purple Elephant." Stay tuned...

How was he to know?

As we visited some friends in their new home yesterday, I overheard Munchkin address the 4-year-old daughter's doll as, "Mr. Baby."

The little girl promptly and adamantly corrected, "It's Mrs. Baby!"

Happy New Year!

Better late than never, I thought I'd wish everyone a Happy New Year! We've been having fun taking time off, and I didn't get any great and grandiose New Years' post written. Instead, I'd like to highlight three blogs that I've started reading recently and are worth telling about.

Down---to---earth is a blog from "down under." It took me by surprise when I checked in partway through the day on New Years' Eve and there was already a January 1 post up. Then, I realized, it was already Jan. 1 in Australia! The author is a lady named Rhonda Jean and she has a wealth of information about leading a simpler life. I love her gentle style, her wisdom and her humility. This blog is quickly becoming one of my favorites and I'd encourage everyone to check it out!

Simple, Green, Frugal Coop, also from Australia, is a group blog with articles that cover all kinds of earth-friendly and simple living topics. I've also enjoyed browsing through the blogs of the contributors. Although some topics seem more relevant to me than others, I've found the posts to be very helpful and well-written. I never know what useful information I may come across! Here's a link to a recent post that I especially enjoyed. I definitely plan to try the author's homemade cracker recipe with the jar of local rosemary I received at Christmas. :)

Lastly is a blog from not just my hemisphere, but right here in the Willamette Valley in Oregon. Our Home Works, is a fine new addition to the blogosphere. Amy writes about local food issues, which of course is right up my alley. Through her blog, I recently learned about the Southern Willamette Valley Bean & Grain Project, which is an ongoing project to convert grass seed farmland in the Willamette Valley over to the production of beans and grains. I can't wait! I could recap what Amy reported about the project, but she did a great job so I'll just link to her post and you can read it for yourself if you're interested.

No kidding

This morning as Scott ran around getting ready to leave for work and I prepared breakfast for Munchkin, Munchkin searched the house for something that needed "fixing." Daddy suggested, "Why don't you fix my head?"

To which Munchkin replied very seriously, "I'm not that kind of workman."