Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Links of Interest

http://www.upworthy.com/fall-in-love-with-these-truffle-hunting-rescue-dogs

Pretty sure she could be trained to hunt for truffles!

http://mentalfloss.com/article/49935/10-very-costly-typos

http://barkpost.com/life/dog-breed-name-pronounce-wrong/

I want to class up the pronunciation for Beagle. No longer rhymes with eagle. French accent and a slight sneer...bay guh el

Scribbles and Scrambles - Idea

 Had a brilliant idea and thought I'd share it with you. Yesterday was just beautiful in Iowa. Almost 80. It triggered a hankering for sun tea. You know the slow brewed tea that lounges in the warm afternoon sun? 

I had thrown together a lemon blueberry coffee cake real early on Sunday morning. I used beautiful organic lemons to get the juice I needed, but even with a hand held citrus squeezer there seems to be so much more juice left. I had even zested the lemons. But because I am somewhat crazy, and cheap and just want everything to get it's fair chance to shine I tossed the mostly used lemons into a ziplock for some future use.

While thinking about sun tea, I remember the lemons. So I tossed 4 used lemon halves into a 2 quart pitcher with 5 normal old tea bags and filled it with water and let it sit outdoors for 4 hours. 

How stinking refreshing and delicious. So. If you are a tea drinker and love lemon, save your squeezed lemons and make yourself a treat. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Dog's Life

Of course, that's not all they did today. Squirrel is dangling over their heads. They were distracted by the jogger who no doubt felt the cujo barking vibes 1/2 a block away. And currently, as I type while waiting to go pick up Rob for his doctor's appointment, they are chewing on trash they've removed from the recycle bin. Yes. It is true. They are rotten. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Goal Check

Since I made the rash announcement that I'd be gathering and purging more items in my house and writing up three articles for September's blog tour in February, I should go ahead and fess up. 

Both goals met. Seriously.

I packed up 5 more bags and boxes combo of stuff. Granted, two boxes were the encyclopedia set we've owned since approximately 1994. I almost kept it because I'm sure history has been rewritten half a dozen times since then, but then decided if I hadn't touched them in, literally, seven years (and that was to move them to where they were until yesterday) I wasn't going to be needing to brush up on history. Real or imagined. 

I did get the three articles written, too. I've got to keep going on both. 

Violin. Uhhhh. Let's not talk about it. 

Of note. Last night it was me alone vs four grandchildren. 

Apparently, there is a grandmother Murphy's Law. It states: "If you are in your unfamiliar territory of your adult child's home, it is a guarantee that something strange will happen." Last night the kids managed to lock one of the bedroom doors. No one was left shrieking inside, nor did a dog slip in to get trapped overnight. This door actually had a keyed lock and bobby pins and sharp knives don't work so well. I gave up in defeat and put the bed-less child in the parent room to sleep (yeah, that's another Murphy's law..."you can put the child to bed but good luck making that stick" the chorus of giggles and shushing was deafening). 

My daughter found the key after I left with my tail tucked. She no doubt got a much better night's sleep than with a seven year old kicking her in the head. I slept like a baby. 

Goal.

Violin.

Three more articles. Okay. Four.

Three more bags of stuff. Yikes. That means dust bunnies. And other unpleasantness. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Makin Beagles Cray-Cray

Our girls, Gladys and Gertrude are toy snobs. They are also toy fickle. There are a few toys in their toy box that never get chewed. And toys that get some attention... IF they are in the right mood. 

Tennis balls? Sigh and shifty-eyed bored look. 

Unless...

Rob's physical therapist came over for more how-to-live-without-a-knee therapy yesterday. He was like "You haven't put tennis balls on your walker yet." And Rob was like, "yeah" So PT dude asked if we had any. Rob directed him to the dog toy box. PT dude cut holes in the tennis balls and popped them onto the walker. Then this happened. 

Later Rob got up to go to the bathroom. The girls followed him and barked all the way. Ha. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Woot Woot

Sick day courtesy of a tummy bug. Yay. Poor Rob, too. The worst is over and I am super warm thanks to my doggie lap robe.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Bravery

Bravery comes in all sizes of packages. 

I have a friend who is learning to live with cancer, knowing that the chemo she's on hasn't kicked the out of control cells and without a miracle, her time is limited on this earth. 

My kids each have unique struggles and have chosen to be brave in those. 

My husband currently has no knee but plenty of pain. 

Bravery can be oh, so heavy. But sometimes we can experience the joy in courage. 

Last night I got to watch our little 1-year-old exhibit a little bravery of her own. We have several steps in our house including sections that go to landings and have only two steps each. Our little roundhead baby is fascinated. Basically, when she's over and awake we do steps. 

Up and down. 

Up and down. 

Up and down. 

However, until last week the down was either an adult lunge to catch crazy baby or holding a tiny hand taking one step at a time. My daughter has been teaching her to go backwards down the stairs on the little landings. 

Yesterday, she initiated this on her own while I was able to take pictures of the very slow methodical process. Shall I mention she was headed to the dog chilling room and the kennel? 

Probably not. 

I won't post pictures of her favorite play area either, since it seems to be the kennel at the moment. If it helps, the older kids love it too, and the dogs don't really use it. Unless the kids corral them into playing with them.