Martin Family Adventure

Adventures with Gramps

 This man loves his ice cream! 

Last week, my niece, Hannah, and I went to spend the day with my grandfather before we left for our week-long trip to Florida to pick up my daughter. It's always a pleasure to spend the day with him. We did our usual run of going out to eat Chinese (Grandpa loves to go to the buffet in town), grocery shopping, bill paying and getting the mail, and Grandpa's newest obsession is to go to the little Village Scoop Shop in Colchester Village. It's not one of those "creemee" ice cream joints with soft ice cream in weird flavors. This place is hardcore. They have REAL ice cream. The hard kind with amazing flavors and toppings and it tastes like real ice cream. He usually gets a chocolate sundae with marshmallow topping, hot chocolate syrup, whipped cream, and a cherry. I've fallen in love with the peanut butter fudge ice cream. It has ribbons of fudge through it along with pieces of peanut butter cups. Hannah was going to get a creemee (they only serve vanilla, chocolate, or twist in creemee flavors) but when she tried my ice cream, she changed her mind. She got Reese's Pieces on top. I think I'll have to add those the next time I go.

Ice creams were perfect on a hot day. My grandfather asked Hannah if she wanted to get seconds and she said she was full. I honestly think that if someone went up for seconds, Grandpa would totally have gone through with it for himself, too. The only reason he didn't was probably because he didn't want to look like a piggy! 

I have always been close to all of my grandparents and I think it's so important for my kids to be, as well. I believe the same thing of my niece and nephew so I'm glad that Hannah was able to go along. 

I had to take these pictures of my Grandpa's creations in his bathroom. They always crack me up and there's always something new to look at. He's a very particular man, especially now that he's gotten older. When I clean his bathroom, he makes sure to let me know that I CAN'T knock his "castle" over. He doesn't use the garden tub behind this "castle" which is a good thing because I can't imagine having to put that up again every time he uses the tub. He uses paper towel and toilet paper rolls, cotton balls, and his own hair. 

Yes, you read that right. He uses his own hair. Now that he's getting older, he loses more of it when he combs it and he also thins it himself using his scissors. He has such thick and full hair. Always has. Doesn't it figure that the guys always get the better hair than the women do?

See all those little gray balls? Those are made from his hair. He rolls it together in his palms until they're as symetrical as he can get them. I joke with him and tell him that it keeps him busy and off the streets at night so he doesn't feel like he needs to turn tricks. Those hair balls (my mom and I laugh every time we say that) are very light and so round. He makes them in different sizes and then places them in order from smallest to largest. See that crock in the back? My brother bought that for Grandpa one year except he's got so many gray hairs now that he's run out of room to put them in the jar. 

This is the newest of his creations and literally made me laugh out loud when I saw it. He usually has his combs and scissors set up in a particular pattern. Even the scissor blades match the diamond tile on his counter but it was the sign above them that really made me laugh. He has such a creative and brilliant mind and he's always been one for quips and puns. The acutal screw in place of the word, "screw," was genius. 

We may not be climbing mountains or going bungee jumping, but life is always an adventure when I'm with my Gramps. 

Sitting still....

I have trouble sitting still. I seem to need something to keep me busy whether it's a book to read or something to keep my hands moving. Even when I go down to the lake with Zach and sit on the beach, I bring something along to keep some part of me moving. Yesterday, I brought some felt and beads to work with, but after a while, I realized that I was missing out on some amazing views of my boy doing what he does best - being a free spirit. I put my handwork down and just sat and enjoyed the wonder that is Zach. I love this picture with Zach in the background running along the lake shore. Sometimes I need to remind myself to put stuff down and be willing to sit still and simply watch; to pick up my head and look for the extraordinary in the ordinary.

I took a walk down to the water and found this amazing stone art that was left behind by some creative person. Every little detail had me fascinated. 

This sweet, young couple came down to the lake and sat on the big log that always seems to be in a new place when we arrive at the beach. I couldn't help but think of David and I when we were on our honeymoon and so in love. We sat on beaches like this and sat just like that. This couple were trying to take pictures of themselves and so I asked them if they wanted me to take some for them with their camera. They stood up and posed a few times and then I told them how adorable they looked sitting on the log and asked if they wanted me to take a picture like that. When they were looking through the pictures I took, that was their favorite one. 

As enjoyable as it is to sit on the beach and work on something I love, I'm so glad that I put my work down and looked around to see what other moments of wonder and peace other people were taking in. I'm glad I got to share in some of those moments, as well. 

Yesterday with my Grandpa

If you saw this sweet older gentleman (that looks a lot like a human version of Papa Smurf), wouldn't you want to go for a walk with him or take him home to dote over? 

This is my Grandpa. He's 83 years old and has a little trouble with his memory and needs some help here and there since he no longer drives. I have the privilege of spending a day a week with him taking him to his appointments, going out for lunch, doing grocery runs, and anything else we dream up. 

He has a childlike wonder of nature and chocolate ice cream that I find so endearing. I count it a blessing to have these days with my Gramps.

After his doctor's appointment, he asked me if I wanted to go to the ice cream parlor. I didn't even realize there was one close by. This man loves chocolate ice cream unlike anything I've seen before. I've never even seen a child that loves ice cream as much as he does. We drove over and he ordered a 4-scoop cone that he had to put into a dish because we were afraid it was going to topple. I found it hilarious that he kept adding more ice cream from the dish to the cone to keep it going.

There was no one else in the parlor....it seems we came at the right time. He said that the place is usually overflowing with people. We sat in the air conditioned foyer and had a friendly debate over which ice cream was better - his chocolate or my peanut butter fudge. Neither of us was going to budge so we agreed to disagree. 

After we had our ice cream, he asked if I wanted to see Colchester Pond. I'd never been there before but he's talked about how lovely it was in the past and we were close by so I said, "Why not?" We ended up taking the "scenic route," which is short-hand for "drive 20 minutes on five different roads to go to a place that we should have found in 5 minutes." Poor Gramps, he had trouble remembering which roads I needed to take even though he'd directed my parents there the day before without one missed turn. 

He felt really bad about having me take the "long way around," and even said, "I didn't think I'd ever get this dumb." I told him that he's not dumb, he just has a little trouble remembering every now and then. I also told him that it was such a pretty drive and it was nice to spend the time together. That made him feel less "dumb." 

He is such a lover of nature and I caught him picking some wildflowers....

...which he put in his shirt pocket as a faux boutonniere. It went well with his choice of shirt. He said he was going to pick some for me but it started sprinkling at that moment and the sky looked like it could open up at any minute so we headed back to the truck. 

This was one of my favorite outings with Grandpa so far. He's in his natural element when he's outside. I definitely think that my son, Zach, gets a lot of his love for nature from my grandfather.

On my way home, the sky DID open up and the power throughout South Burlington and Shelburne blew out when a huge lightning strike came down. All of the traffic lights were dark right at rush hour. Fortunately people were courteous and treating intersections as if they were 4-way stops without lights and taking turns, but it was a long drive home. 

And now it's time for me to stick my nose in my textbook and get some homework done. Hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday!

Adventures with the boy-child

It's ironic that this boy-child of mine never liked to have his routine switched up but now that he's older, he's very spontaneous as long as it's on his terms. His interest in something can be diverted so quickly that it makes my head spin. I suppose it's only fair that I be flexible with him because I expected it so much from him when he was younger. 

As Zach and I were driving home from church on Sunday, I drove slowly over the railroad tracks about a mile from our house. He likes this because it enables him to look both ways down the track to see if there's a train coming. If there was, I would have had to stop because he loves to watch the train cars go by. He can sit for hours at the computer and watch YouTube videos of trains if we let him. As I drove past the tracks, Zach insisted that we stop so he could walk over them so I pulled off to the side and let him do just that. 

I had no idea that Zach's plan was to walk across the trestle and to the other side. Underneath the trestle is a 20-foot drop to a creek and a lot of rocks. I tried to get him to turn around and come back but he was having no part of it. I got close enough to the trestle to see that, even if his foot slipped, there wasn't enough room for him to go completely through. He leg would go through probably to his thigh, but that's it. I breathed a little sigh of relief and let my child be the spontaneous adventurer he wanted to be. 

He was oh-so-proud of himself when he reached the other side. Then he made his way back. 

When he got back, he told me that he was a little scared because he could see between the rails down into the gorge but he wanted to be brave and conquer his fears. 

The rails were quite hot on Sunday so he didn't keep his hand on there too long. His curiosity about everything around him is entertaining to watch and I usually learn so much in the process. He is full of random facts of information that astound me. 

When Zach does things that he is proud of himself for, he's one to look back at it and stare with a feeling of accomplishment. I love this about him. Just look at him standing there. He's all, "Yeah, I did it. Take THAT!"

Cricket Hunting with the boy-child

He may be a teenager now, but that doesn't stop him from the passions of his younger years. Bugs are something that Zach has loved for as long as I can remember. They've captured his interest and his heart and it's something I hope never fades. It's part of what defines him. 

Since we moved to our house 4 years ago (seen in the upper right corner), one of the traditions that Zach and I share through the "cricket months," as Zach likes to call them, is to go across the street so that he can go cricket hunting. I bring my lawn chair over and set it up in the field and bring the girl-dogs with me. I usually bring a book, but now I bring a textbook so I can keep on top of my college studies. I turn my chair towards the mountains and away from the road.

When we first moved here, there was hay in this field. Last year, the farmer swapped crops and put corn in. Next year will probably be the last corn crop before it turns to hay again. I'm not going to be able to enjoy this view from the field for too much longer. Eventually the corn will be too high and I won't be able to fit my chair in there. It was a wee bit too hazy yesterday so Mt. Mansfield (Vermont's highest peak) wasn't visible. I love that I can see the Green Mountains the from the front of my house and the Adirondack Mountains (in New York) from the back of my house. We were truly blessed when we got this house. 

One of the many great things about our school district is that Zach is part of a program that works with autistic kids and they have 6 weeks of summer services. He's in the program from 8:30 am to 2:30 pm Mondays through Fridays (this week, though, they have vacation). They get to do all sorts of fun outings and some academic stuff to keep current so they don't regress when they go back to school in the fall. Zach's team has come up with some amazing ways to help with behavior modification and part of that is using a token system to earn things he likes. He was finally able to earn this Bug Podz Habitat Construction set that he's been wanting for a while. 

He can build it however he wants to and he can also add on more if he ever wants to get another set. I think he's changed the dynamics of the habitat two or three times since he brought it home on Friday. What he really want to put in there are fruit flies and a piece of banana and see how many multiply over a short amount of time. I told him that was fine with me as long as he let them go outside and not in the house! Yes, we've had trouble with him letting bugs out in the house MANY times. In fact, last week, he let a bunch of house flies in the house and we made him catch them all and put them back outside. I'm wondering if it's the "thrill of the hunt" for him.

Here's the only cricket that he was able to catch yesterday. They were very elusive and hiding under the rocks to stay cool and every time Zach picked up a rock, they would make a quick getaway. 

Here's his "serious" face. The boy needs a shower bad! :) 

And here's one that I took of me while I was sitting in the field. 

A lazy day at the beach with my favorite 13-year old

Today has been a pretty lazy summer day. Last night, around 6 pm, I fell asleep on the couch and didn't wake back up until 9 pm. I watched Whale Wars (one of my favorite shows on Animal Planet) and then headed to my computer to tool around online. I went back to bed at midnight and slept till 9 am. It was a lot of much needed sleep. 

I spent some time watering the garden before the sun was fully overhead as we haven't had much rain at all this week. I don't even remember the last time we had rain. It seems this hot and sunny weather is all we've been having this summer. I found some really irritating beetles taking over my squash plants and looked them up online to find that they are cucumber beetles.

They are nasty little buggers that go for anything in the squash family and eat away the leaves and infest the plant so that it wilts and dies. I'm hoping that we've caught them before they've done too much damage. It's a bit late in our abbreviated growing season up here in the northeast to plant more. I found a natural remedy online that I sprayed on the plants earlier today, making sure to get the mating couples that were "doing it" on my leaves. Ew! If we lose these plants, I'm going to be mighty put out. Last year, we had such a horrible growing season and the only thing we got out of our MASSIVE garden was green beans. We're still eating them from the freezer, a year later! I've never had any trouble with striped cucumber beetles. In fact, this is the first time I've ever seen them. There are SO many of them!

The last two years, we've lost our tomato plants to blight. This year, I made sure to buy them from an organic grower that was at least 40 min. south of us so there was no worry of cross contamination in the air. I also rotate all of my vegetables so nothing grows in the same spot year after year. The tomatoes are looking really good and we have some green ones growing already. Now we're just waiting until they start to ripen to see if we lose them or not. The last two years, just as the tomatoes ripened, they would get black on the bottom and shrivel all the way up in what seemed like overnight! I've already lost two of my broccoli plants, a pepper plant, one tomato plant, and an eggplant plant this year. I'm not sure why. The other plants all look really healthy. Something is also getting to my bean plants this year, something we've never had to worry about years before. I highly doubt we have any deer or rabbits, especially with 3 big dogs patrolling the yard. Nothing would even dare get close, so it must be bugs of some kind. 

Zach and I took a trip down to our town's beach. It's a little beach overlooking Kingsland Bay and something really only the locals know about. The water is really shallow for quite a ways out so you can walk out about 40 feet into the lake and it would only be up to about your waist. There's a quick drop off farther out that make it possible for boats to moor out there, but it's ideal for kids. The sandy beach is a great place to sit and read and there's a nice green lawn above the beach with a couple of picnic tables. 

The lake level is a bit low right now since it's been a while since we've had any rain. Zach loves to fish in the shallows with his net. He's pretty impressive when it comes to catching fish because he does it with a net with no handle. The "no handle" thing isn't a special trick or anything...he just loses the handle or breaks it by accident. He caught a bunch of baby catfish, minnows (he calls them Tuckerfish - not sure why but it's a cute name that he's called them since he was little) and a pumpkin seed fish. He ended up throwing the pumpkin seed back because he only wanted little fish. I found this out when I went to take a picture of the pumpkin seed  (they're much bigger than minnows and quite beautiful) and I noticed it was gone. 

He brought the minnows home and put them in one of his tanks. He loves it when they school together. That kid can be entertained for hours just looking at the different tanks and jars of fish and insects he has. Other than the resident fish that we've gotten at the pet store, everything else is "catch and release." He can hang onto them for one day to look at them but they have to go back to their natural habitat the next day.

There was a little pop of color on the beach next to the large downed tree trunk that I was sitting on in the shade. I love wild flox. It grows in the most understated places. There was only this small bunch on this dry beach and it was perfect placement while I was reading some magazines. 

I love watching Zach on the beach. When he wants me to take him to the water, he always suggests, "Mom, can you take me to catch fish? You can sit on the beach and read a book. It will be perfect!" How can I say no to something like that? I treasure those moments. 

Creating their own fun

Girly was wondering what she was going to do with her cousins here yesterday. I told her she'd figure something out. And so she did. 

I'm not sure who had the idea first but this is what I was called over to see as I was hanging a load of laundry on the line (in spite of the horrible weather Irene caused here in Vermonton Sunday, yesterday was beautiful out). 

Girly and Hannah took all the wood scraps out of this utility bin that David brought home from work and plugged up the holes (not sure with what), added what looks like a carboard sail and hauled it into the pool. 

The best part, though, was when my niece got into the bin.....and for your enjoyment, I got it on video! 

(yes, at 1:27, Girly does go off to the side and pees in the grass - sigh)

I lose it at 2:53 - I couldn't help it! 

These kids remind me so much of the fun we used to have as kids in the summer. We were always coming up with something crazy and creative. 

Also, Hannah covered part of herself in mud.

Good, cheap fun. It's not clean, but it's good and cheap.

Art adventures in the front yard

I recently had a small art camp here at the house and even though there were only 3 children (including Girly), we all had a blast! We mostly worked on canvas but the girls were having so much fun and were finishing their projects so quickly that I was able to add some extra projects into the class. 

One of the girls asked if we could do splatter painting and I thought, why not? I gave each of the kids a big cut of multi-purpose cloth (it feels like canvas) and set them up in the front yard.

We watered down a rainbow of acrylic paints and used all sorts of brush sizes and then the splattering began. It was so fun to watch them come up with crazy splatter patterns, add more colors, decide which color they needed next. 

The girls even painted the palms of their hands and the soles of their feet to add a bit more of themselves to the canvases. 

They washed off at the spicket on the back of the house and then we came inside to add "extras" to their canvases - ribbons, fibers, painted bottle caps, fabric shapes and letters and then we added ribbons at the top so they could be hung up at home. 

 

I love how different they all turned out to be. One canvas was hung while it was drying so that the paint could drip down (on the left). The girls were so proud of their creations!

Here's a video that I shot while the girls were splattering:

This child will be the cause of my heart attack some day

There's never a dull moment here at the Martin house. 

Zach has recently taken to climbing trees. He said that he wants to start a camp for kids called "Tree Climbing Camp." Of course, in order for him to have a camp, he has to know just how to climb trees. 

Zach is pretty much fearless when it comes to stuff like this. For a while, he was climbing trees with his Crocs on. Never let it be said that there's nothing you can't do with Crocs on. I think Zach has pretty much found a way to do everything with Crocs on, including tree climbing. I got too worried about him slipping in a tall tree, so we got rid of the Crocs so that he has no choice but to use his sneakers. 

Not everyone is as excited about Zach's talents as he is. We've been "talked to" by the grounds keeper at the doctor's office, he's been scolded by the lifeguards at the community pool and he's been chided by the manger at Toys R Us. He's told to get down and his response is usually, "Stupid, dumbass people. I'm a careful climber. Jackasses. Ruined my day. Now it's a stupid, shit day." Hey, at least he's honest, though we do have a talk afterwards about appropriate language. 

I'm sure you can imagine the potential cardiac arrest when Girly told me to come outside and see where Zach was. 

Yes, I'll admit, that I came back in to get the camera AND the video camera and then went back out. For the record, when I went out the first time, Zach was ALL THE WAY AT THE TOP of this tree. This tree is about 50-ish feet tall! I told him to get down but to do it carefully. He was laugning and giggling at the top of the tree while swaying back and forth. The potential cardiac arrest became even more potential when I realized that on the other side of this tree were power lines. Needless to say, tree climbing in our trees along the hedgerow is banned. I prayed the whole time he was on his way down. 

While he was at the top of the tree, he said, "This is SO cool, Mom! Things look so different from up here. You look so small down there." He was completely fascinated by the perspective on his yard from way up there. I hate to be the one to crush that curiosity and fascination, but come on, he was at the top of a 50+ foot tall tree - with power lines on the other side!

I swear, I'm gonna have to wrap that kid in bubble wrap and put a helmet on him. 

On his way down from that big, tall oak tree, he jumped over to a smaller tree for the rest of the climb. 

I'm tellin' ya, this kid is going to be the cause of my heart attack one day. Well, him or his father. At least I know that's where he gets it from .

Summer weekend adventures at Meadowbrook

During the summer, I teach a handful of weekend classes at the Fletcher Farm School for the Arts & Crafts. We've been going down as a family since 2002. In 2003, we started camping out in the summer time, so for the past 8 years, my kids have looked forward to the summers down there. It's a special time for them. They get to spend the whole weekend with David and have uninterrupted time with him. There's no yard work or house work to distract him. It's just a lazy summer weekend when David and the kids can play in the fields, the river and creeks, the lake down the road and its waterfall. He takes the kids to the park and plays tennis with Girly. Zach spends his time catching crickets and katydids. The three of them come to the art school at noon time and we share a lunch under the trees near the little pond at the top of the hill.

Even though I teach on those weekends, they feel like lazy summer weekends. There's nothing to distract me when I come back to the camp site at the end of the day. No computer, no cable. There's not even electricity or running water where we camp (unless you consider the nearby creeks "running water"). There's a pit toilet nearby, but that's as fancy as it gets. It's almost-primitive camping at its best. We love that there's no one else near us. The dogs can run around and so can the kids, without worrying about bothering anyone else. We get the tent set up, David gets a fire going and we cook over the open fire. The s'mores ingredients come out after dinner and the kids look through the hedgerow to find the perfect stick for their marshmallows. Good times, for sure. 

A few weeks ago, the kids noticed that there were berries growing in the hedge row. Lots and lots of wild raspberries. 

The kids each grabbed a bowl and started picking. Soon enough, Zach left his bowl and ate everything he picked. Girly ate some while she picked but she wanted to share some with David. Zach isn't so fond of sharing food. 

This is what I get when I ask for a picture of the boy-child. He gets it from his father. I get the same kind of response from David. I joke that it's the tainted Amish blood that runs in his family. My poor kids got the shallow end of the gene pool from both of us. Poor things. 

Girly has taken over the job of making the "big bed" in our tent. Over all these years, she's watched me do it long enough that she knows exactly how to set it up. We're camping purists and don't bring an air mattress. Instead, we bring about every blanket, comforter and quilt we own and make our own mattress. David and I sleep in the middle and the kids are on either side of us. Add in the 3 dogs and we're quite cozy for the night. This tent has served us well over the past 10 years. I think it still has a few more years left in it, but the kids are anxious to have tents of their own soon. David and I are anxious for that, too. *wink*

I love waking up to this sunny scenery from our tent door in the morning. Meadowbrook holds a special place in our heart. Even the woman that owns the property knows that particular spot is the "Martin's spot." I let her know a week ahead that we're on our way and she makes sure that there's a little sign tacked to the picnic table that says, "Reserved for the Martins." It makes my heart smile everytime I see that sign when we arrive.