Quick update: Father's Day edition

First off, happy Father's Day to my dad and dad-in-law. What great guys.

My dad has given me many nuggets of wisdom, but two of the best I'll relate here: 1) Regarding work: "Spend 80 percent of your time doing the 20 percent that really matters." Great advice. And 2) Regarding some shoddy work (a paper) that I thought I'd turn in, hoping no one would notice how terrible it was: "Heather, this is bad. No, really. This is bad." (Followed by a short story about how a parakeet would turn up his tail at this paper had it been used as a cage liner.) This may sound harsh, but as parents (hopefully), we've built up enough of a relationship with our kids that they know we love them. No matter what. And hopefully the confidence that our children have in our undying love allows us to be among the few people who can be really honest with them. All of us fall short of our potential sometimes. And maybe we know it, but it's likely that we won't admit it to ourselves. Maybe other people notice, but they won't tell us. Parents will. And that's blessing.

It isn't that I want to push my children to reach my goals. I want them to reach their goals and not to sell themselves short by putting in a poor effort and pretending to themselves that it was the best they could do.

And hopefully we will be able to nudge them gently, instead of becoming the highly annoying people Alan and I encountered at Coconut Creek's "Gran Maze" (yes, they spelled it that way) in Panama City Beach, Florida. Someone basically built a human-sized rat maze. And there are people who pay to run around in the maze, frantically punching tickets at various stations. And there are parents who feel required to stand on the elevated viewing platform, screeching at the top of their lungs, "No, Billy, go left! Left! Stay to the left! Now right! Right! Punch the ticket! PUNCH THE TICKET!" Can you imagine how obnoxious these people are at sporting events, when the outcome might actually matter a little? Wow. I told Alan, "Don't EVER let me micromanage my children in the rat maze."

But enough of that. Dad, Pops G., we love you. We'd even charge in after you if you were stuck in a human-sized rat maze.

On to the pictures.

Took the Megster and Laurel to a kiddie carnival this weekend. Meggie had a blast. Laurel ate a lot of fries. You do what you can do if you're to small to ride.

Riding high.

Father's Day presents. Laurel is crawling now. Look at her here, lying in wait.

Meggie instructs Alan on the wearing of a tie: "Daddy, part of it will have to go around your neck." Laurel has achieved her object: the wrapping paper.

Mmmmm. Tasty. And green! My child eats paper. All paper. Newspaper. Cardboard. Wrapping paper. We fish it out of from between her gnashing little teeth (at great peril to our fingers) as soon as we notice what she's eating. But it's tough to get there before the first shred goes in. I try to feed her lots of fiber. But she really wants fiber board.

Other things from this week: After two weeks of work, I'm enjoying it. And learning a lot. And the kids love their new school. We've resurrected our both-on-active-duty chore schedule to keep things sane at home.

Also, I made my own laundry detergent this weekend, using this recipe. I am SO impressed with the results. The gelatinous gloop cleans better than the stuff I was buying. And because I used soap we had around but were unlikely to use in the shower, the cost of my detergent is about $0.02 a load. And it gets the kids' clothes so clean! Humor me. Because my kids are so tough on clothes, I regard drastically reducing the cost of detergent while boosting cleaning power as a huge victory in the Clothes Wars. You wouldn't believe how dirty they get at school. Alan even asked me if mud wrestling is a scheduled activity at the day care center. They get that dirty.