#WE HAD REUNION DINNER. I ATE QUITE A BIT. AND THEN MY AUNT UNCLE AND DAD FORCED ME TO FINISH THE FISH EVEN AFTER I SAID NO

[give-me-your-heart]

boy i love being forced to eat

[by-thegrace]

On Watching a Loved One Die

The past 10 days have been nothing short of a blur and while I sit on an airplane from Ft. Lauderdale, FL to Boston, MA I am finally getting a moment to breathe and think about what I have just experienced.  

12 days ago my mother received an early morning phone call letting her know that her dad, my papa, had suffered a stroke sometime during the night/early morning and had been found at home, unconscious, by a neighbor.  My nana was away visiting family in New York but would be taking the first flight available to get back to Florida.  She had asked the doctor on the phone, “On a scale from 1-10, how bad was this stroke?” The doctor answered her without hesitating, “9”.  My mom made the decision to fly down to her old stomping grounds of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to meet my nana and be with my papa as decisions would need to be made and we didn’t know if my papa would be able to pull through the first 24 hours following the stroke.  

To our surprise, when my mom got to Florida, my papa was actually quite alert.  He was paralyzed on the right side of his body, and could not talk.  The stroke affected nearly 70% of his brain, so it was a miracle at all that he was able to recognize family.  He communicated by squeezing hands, mustering a half smile, grunts and eye brow expressions.  My mom spent that first weekend with him and papa seemed to be pulling through.  On the Monday following the stroke, however, he suffered a massive heart attack while in the CCU (critical care unit).  Due to the severity of his stroke, the doctors were not able to operate on his heart.  As one could imagine, a massive heart attack following a massive stroke took quite a tole on his body.  When I heard about the heart attack, I decided to take an emergency flight to Florida to see my papa and be a support to my mom.  

When I arrived in Florida, we drove to the hospital where I was able to see my papa for the first time in close to a year and a half.  Unfortunately, our reunion was not a happy one- my papa was restlessly sleeping, was experiencing extremely labored breathing and just seemed to simply be in pain.  I spoke gently in his ear letting him know that I was there, but received no indication that he heard me.  I went home with my mom that night discouraged that I potentially arrived too late and that he might pass during the night.  Luckily, we awoke the next morning to him feeling much better than the night before.  He was given a little morphine to ease his pain and instantly recognized me when I walked in the room.  I was able to hold his hand, look him in the eye, sing to him and kiss his cheek.  He knew I was there and I was grateful.  

To make a long story short, we remained in the hospital those next few days.  Some days, we would arrive at 7:30 am and not leave again until 10 or 11 at night.  I ate close to three meals a day in a hospital cafeteria, I held my nana when she rocked with sobs, I got to know lots of nurses, I sang in my grandfather’s ear.  Finally, on Thursday June 15th, we made the difficult, but necessary, decision to move my grandfather into hospice care.  Papa arrived at hospice at 3:30 in the afternoon and I could instantly tell how much more comfortable he was.  The bed was bigger, he wasn’t fighting with tubes and machines attached to his body, he wasn’t dealing with the constant buzz and energy of a critical care unit.  He was in his own room, peacefully sleeping.  

The hospice staff and accommodations were incredible.  There was a family room with a kitchen, coffee pot, food in the fridge, TV and more for family to pass time in between visits to their loved ones.  There were showers available for guests, a quiet room for prayer and reflection; the lights were dim and the entire environment was simply…. peaceful.  Close to 10 of us sat around my papas bed, taking turns holding his hand, recounting memories and spending time with another.  Around 7 pm, we ordered take out from a local restaurant and ate together in the family room.  After dinner, everyone decided to head home for a little while in order to change, freshen up and for some people to go to bed.  My nana and aunt were planning on staying the night so that papa wouldn’t be alone.  When everyone said that they would be heading home, I volunteered to stay with my grandfather until they got back.  I remember my mom saying to me before leaving, “Are you sure you’ll be okay by yourself?”  I assured her I’d be fine and to not worry about rushing back.  

After a flurry of people said goodnight, it was just me and my papa.  I was sitting on his right side, the side affected most by the stroke, holding his hand and cooling his hot forehead with my other hand.  I remember saying something out loud like, “Alright Papa, it’s just you and me now.  I’m here and I love you… you’ve been the best papa I could have ever asked for.  It’s okay for you to let go.  I’m here.”  And then I started singing…. first Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love” and then moving onto “Amazing Grace”.  Around the third verse of Amazing Grace, I started to notice his breathing becoming even more shallow and the breaths further apart.  I remember consciously thinking to myself, “He’s dying… I’m going to be here with him when he dies”.  I became choked up and my heart started racing, but I was also filled with a pretty incredible peace and understanding of what was happening and that it was my job in that moment to support him, love him and help make this transition as peaceful as possible.  I continued singing the third verse of Amazing Grace… “… and Grace has brought me safe thus far and Grace will lead us home” I noticed one gasp for air, then about ten seconds before he took one more big gasp and then stillness.  I counted to 60 before kissing his forehead and going to get the nurse.  With tearful eyes, I approached the nurses table and said, “Hi… so sorry to bug you but I think my grandfather just passed”.   They said something like, “Oh my God, honey, I’m so sorry… let’s go check”.  One nurse named Inna went with me back to his room and took his blood pressure- the screen read error and she said “I’m calling the time of death as 10:34 pm”.  I made the necessary phone calls and my family arrived back at the hospital within 10 minutes.  I held his hand for those entire 10 minutes, cherishing the warmth that was still inside of them.  

Watching someone die is a truly surreal thing.  The next morning, my seven year old cousin Ashlynn innocently said to me, “Were you scared?”.  I think, in the moment, I was a little bit scared…. because I knew what was happening and I knew that his last moments on earth would be with me…. which is a task and a blessing all in one.  I was also more peaceful, though, than I could have ever anticipated.  I have to believe that my papa chose that moment to let go.  He had been surrounded by people all day… it seems to be a little more than coincidence that he would die fifteen minutes after everyone had left.  They say that hearing is the last sense to go… I have to believe he felt some comfort in hearing me talk to him and sing to him in those final moments.  I have to believe that somewhere in his body, he gave himself that last little bit of strength to say “it’s okay, I can go now”.  I have to believe he knew I’d be able to handle it.  I have to believe that he knew I was there with him.    

No one can prepare you for the death of a loved one.  No one can prepare you on how to console others after the death of a loved one.  I held my mom, my nana, my uncle, my aunts and many more this week as they cried over my papa’s loss of life.  And even now, while writing this, I am filled with a little bit of anxiety because there is no one in my family who can quite understand what it was like to see him breathe his last.  I am the only person who witnessed that- who spent those last few minutes with him. It’s impossible to communicate.  I hope I did a good job.  

I’ll never understand or know fully why I was in that room when my grandfather died…. why it was not my mother (his first born child), my nana (the love of his life), my uncle (his only son).  I am grateful, though, that I was able to use my voice in those last few moments.  My voice has brought me through some of life’s more beautiful and devastating moments.  It has always been such a piece of my identity, and it brings me comfort to know that it just might have brought my papa comfort.  I’m grateful for my papa.  I’m grateful that I was able to hold his hand a lot last week, and that I was able to smell his unmistakeable “papa smell”, and that I was able to help him and support him since he has been such a support in my life.  I was grateful at the funeral when so many of his friends said to me, “He spoke of you so often.  He loved you endlessly”.  I’m grateful for my faith.  Because of it, I KNOW my Papa is in a better place and that he’s completely free of pain and earthly worries.  I was grateful when I looked into the sky tonight and saw a beautiful pink sunset, because I know my papa was a part of that.  I’m grateful to know that this might even mean I have another angel watching over me and helping me figure this life thing out.  

I love you, Papa. Keep an eye on me from up there.  

[cosmosogler]

didn’t do much today. got up before 10:30. stumbled into the bathroom and took my meds. felt like i was forgetting some, but i took them in order and i was looking at my bedtime meds. i normally wake up on my chest but it’s so sore these days that i usually end up on my back when i put my alarm on snooze for a few minutes in the morning.

i cooked myself the other two veggie burgers for lunch, and i almost ate both of them. it seemed like my appetite was coming back a little bit. i was very lethargic all day. wasn’t focusing very hard on anything in particular. i did beat the beginner doubles battles and multi battles over the course of the day at least. so... i can start doing the more difficult challenge. the final goal would be a 200-win streak to get every item you can win, but i don’t really need the last item... i don’t think i would use it. i would just know i had it. i’ve never gotten it before. i think that’s been the grand prize since generation 3. i’ve never even seen anyone use it for anything. it’s really dependent on luck in battle and by the time it activates half the potential boosts wouldn’t be helpful.

the second to last prize doesn’t seem like that big a deal either. i’m more interested in hitting a 50-win streak. that’s when you get the stamp in your trainer passport. which is even more useless than either of the grand prizes! 

well, technically, nothing in the game helps me personally. i just do it because it’s fun. or, when it’s not fun, i can trick myself into feeling like i accomplished something.

anyway while i was flopped on my desk i managed to call the doctor and she can see me tomorrow morning. it’s even at a nice time for me. i gotta finish this prescription first though so i can stay on my “start on sunday” schedule... luckily the next few days are just sugar pills so hopefully the side effects will cool off a little bit.

i was thinking about maybe taking pictures of wiley while we’re out in the yard. i used to like taking pictures, and wiley is a really pretty dog. eve and doge don’t like the camera so i generally have to pretend i’m using my phone to text and turn off all the sound. they only notice i’m trying to take a picture if i point the lens at them. it’s kind of funny. they do it with my 3ds too since it has the lenses.

or i take pictures of them zoomed in through the window while they’re lounging in the yard. i took a really good picture of eve and doge laying together in the shade a few years ago. i’ll put it in a post. i think i’ve uploaded it before but it makes me happy to look at it.

for dinner mom and dad decided they wanted mexican food. i was crying internally because ralberto’s is so bad, but mom said she was talking about manuel’s. manuel’s is on bell road and it has THE BEST SALSA. i have never tasted better salsa in my life in any mexican restaurant i’ve been to. the only person who makes better salsa than manuel’s family is my aunt sharon. i don’t know what she puts in it but i can’t ever get enough of it. and she must make it in her bathtub because there’s buckets of it when she makes it for parties. when i’m at her house sometimes for my cousins�� birthdays i end up just sitting by the salsa tank.

i got sidetracked. the point was that i went with dad to pick up this mexican food and then i sat and ate it. i got sick right as i had the first bite of my enchilada but i forced myself to keep eating because i have been so hungry. 

while i was on the road with dad there was a song that came on the radio and dad was like, “oh man, i used to play this song all the time in my firebird.” he told me about the Good Old Days when he had a convertible and long hair and an enormous speaker set  that he kept in the back seat so he could blast this single song every time he rolled up to his friends. he said he had it on a cassette and it was the first track so he could always find it right away to put it on when he got in earshot of his friends.

i kinda looked at him and i said “i admire your dedication to having a theme song.”

then he told me that before junior year of high school for a few years he just flat out had no friends because they all started doing drugs and he didn’t want to so he stopped hanging out with them. and judging from how his brother turned out (dead) he had good reason. i didn’t know uncle jimmy very well. he had trouble following rules, i think he gets that from his mom. my dad’s like that too sometimes. he won’t do something just because you asked/told him to do it.

he was chronically homeless so we’d let him stay at our place. we’d gotten this house specifically to house long term guests. we’ve had a variety of people stay with us between houses or jobs. but uncle jimmy, he had an ancient beetle with faded blue paint, and he was always working on it. and by working on it i mean he would disappear and leave his car in our garage. it had a sticker on the window that said “skydive naked - balls out” and mom would turbo frown every time she saw it. the rule he had to follow was “don’t smoke” because dad hates the smell and also if you don’t properly dispose of the butts the dogs get into them. but that wasn’t the reason, it was mostly just because dad hated the smell and mom liked having A Rule. they probably had other arrangements that i was too young to be told about. 

he got sick. i don’t know how or with what. a heart attack? he’d always been a real bruiser, but prone to getting overweight. but he died. dad didn’t let any of us go to the funeral because his family tends to get drunk at gatherings and they often top off their reunions with a good brawl.

the point of that story was that dad grew up pretty poor but married into a rich family of basically immigrants who got lucky with their engineering degrees. but even though dad is now securely in the middle class he thinks of himself as the perpetual tough guy blue collar underdog. i think that’s why he keeps his part time job at ups, aside from the great insurance that i need to live and have depended on for 14 years since my heart surgery. he likes to come off as gruff and badass but he’s kind of, a tired old supernerd. it’s fascinating how much time he puts into cultivating his look. 

and jimmy was bigger and stronger than him! dad’s the responsible one in his family!!

but i think he still, kind of, has that attitude of, i don’t know, having to physically fight everyone that he had growing up. i don’t know how to describe it. i also am not quite sure how his political views work. he seems to be getting more moderate and also more extreme as he gets older. he’s always been a huge fan of unions, but not when they start strikes, but he hates getting screwed over by the board of directors of ups, but he supports big business because that’s what the greatest country in history was built on. like, he’s a republican in theory, but as soon as the downsides of conservative policies affect him he gets frustrated. but he also gets frustrated when people take action to get a better working environment because “things aren’t that bad.” 

hmm. it’s like, he expects things to be bad for him, because that’s his lot in life, and only whiners complain about what they’re given. he’s like that with mom too. and he’s pretty catholic and very traditional with masculinity and the nuclear family dynamic. it’s like, a self fulfilling prophecy with him. he expects things to be bad, so he reacts to everything as if he’s already in a bad place, which gets him into a bad place?

he always calls me a wuss because i’m more of a pacifist. even though i’ve been bullied and in fights before... but then he turns around and says “you’re a better person than me.” and he taught me how to fistfight effectively. it feels like his opinion of me depends on his mood.

he also laughed at me after i was working on barbara’s car with him yesterday. we went in the grocery store to get her stuff and i said i was gonna go wash my hands because they were oily and dusty. he said this is why i’m always sick and licked his fingers. i said i don’t like having dirty grease all over my fingers and i’m gonna wash it off. he said something like a little grease never hurt anyone. 

i dunno. i really don’t like having anything on my hands or face. it’s a little weird because when i do stuff like yardwork or building i have trouble getting started. but as soon as i get started i’m fine with it. until i’m not doing it any more, and then i need my hands clean immediately. it’s like swimming. i don’t want to get wet, and then when i’m in the pool or ocean i have a great time, and then when i get out of the water i want to be dry immediately and am super uncomfortable until i’ve washed my hair because it feels all grimy if i don’t at least soap it off afterward. or i get sand on my feet and don’t want to put on my shoes or walk anywhere off the beach until my feet are c l e a n. 

maybe i set myself up for failure there too. i really don’t handle germs well, immune system wise. i think my immune system didn’t develop properly because my body was always in overdrive mode with the bad heart. so i was sick literally all the time even when i had just been sick with the same strain of flu and it always takes me weeks to recover from anything. since high school i’ve started getting better and only get sick maybe three times a year in a good year. this year’s been bad so far though especially with the mysterious illness.

so i learned to keep everything clean and then i REALLY never built up my resistance to disease.

i also wash my hands every time i drive, but that’s because i have watched mother sneeze directly onto the steering wheel more than once.

i feel a little better when i’m writing my journal entries. it keeps my mind off how bad i feel physically. but then i start feeling emotionally junky when i bring up all these buried feelings and memories. 

eve seemed to be feeling much better today. she was back to walking just sort of funny, the way she’s always walked. the only time she moves her legs normally is when she’s running or prancing around. and even then she runs greyhound style, not regular dog style. so i think the odd way she carries her hind legs is more a greyhound thing than a leg thing. 

i was talking to dad about how she used to catch the birds in our backyard when she was younger. dad said she caught a lot of birds. i said that if i’d been the hunting type she would have been a beast at nabbing waterfowl. she probably wouldn’t be too good at catching rabbits though, she’s too heavyset to turn quickly enough. she’s got, like, the legs and face and ears of a greyhound, but the chest and fur and tail and feet of a black lab. so when she runs into you she hits like a truck. the birds never stood a chance. dad said the worst was when she brought birds to the door that were only half dead. 

she’s also, sort of, abnormally good at manipulating her environment, for an animal? if something’s in her way she either jumps over it or pushes it. diogi and wiley have never touched the baby gate, and if a door is cracked open they treat it like it’s closed because they see that they won’t fit through the crack. but eve hops the baby gate or tips it over, and pushes open doors, and actively tricks the other dogs. she’s not much for standing on her back legs, but if she was i probably could have taught her to flip the lights when she wanted. ping was a little bit similar, where he figured out how to open doors and he liked to push everything off the counters and all the photo frames off my dresser. but he never applied more force to anything than a tap. when we velcroed the modem to the counter he stopped tipping it over even though he could have easily gotten it if he’d pushed harder.

she also recognizes a lot of words and phrases. wiley and diogi are pretty good at that too, but eve figured out “cross here” for crossing the street during our walks and “this way” when she turned the wrong way at a fork in the road, while wiley seems to think i am babbling at him. she also picks up really fast on when you’re trying to teach a new trick to wiley and will start doing it sometimes. there’s a few tricks she doesn’t do mostly because she doesn’t like people touching her paws. she wags her tail, very tiny wags, when she’s confused.

she’s also the only animal who’s ever like, grabbed me and tried to take me somewhere. wiley grabs my arm sometimes but he usually just wants to play tug of war.

i dunno. i’ve been writing for a really long time now. i forgot to do some daily stuff in pokemon. i don’t want to leave it until i wake up... but it’s also after 1 and i want  to sleep. it’ll only take a few minutes.

[happy2bmyownboss]

We have had quite the week again. Fun and crazy as usual. Keep reading to find out about some of our many adventures here in the little house on the pond. We have included affiliate links to some of the products mentioned in this post. These help to support our blog.

Monday

Elephant fuzz here, elephant fuzz there, elephant fuzz everywhere… sounds a bit like a children’s book, doesn’t it? So what is elephant fuzz? I asked the same thing when I first saw this all over the house:

  The kids were quick to reply that it was ‘elephant fuzz’…. ok, but where did it come from? Here is the answer:

It appears that this little pillow has a hole and is leaking elephant fuzz… lol… kids come up with the darnedest things don’t they? Well, I got the hole taken care of and hopefully that’ll be the end of the elephant fuzz.

Afterwards we made some Haystack Cookies or Noodle Cookies as Mr. Awesome calls them. The kids have been eating them up!

That afternoon Jacob put his Kids Cook Real Food skills to work while helping me make a salad to go with our Red & White Pasta.

Monday our regular club dance was ‘dark’ to support a reunion dance that was being held locally. Here is a short video from the event:

  We had a good time and got to see old friends plus we made some new ones while we were there. Afterwards we ate at Texas Roadhouse and an exceptional server named Terrence.

Tuesday

I got a call from the Florida Gardiner Scholarship telling me about a glitch in the system which had caused some of my orders to be denied… this meant I had to go back into the system and resubmit the orders… oh what fun!

I also figured out that I can ‘Air Drop’ pictures from my phone to my tablet… this makes life so much easier!

The kids are loving their new routine chart:

I am working on ordering some different magnets because the stars don’t stick very well. I may also paint or paper the board. There will be a post about this sometime in the future.

We read a chapter from the Laura Ingalls Wilder biography before bed and had a short discussion about the things we learned from the chapter. The kids are super excited about the new school year.

They were also very happy that I had ordered more of their favorite toothpaste:

We all love the lemon flavor and I love the fact that it works so great! I always buy the triple pack and the first time I ordered I bought the multipack so we could try out all the flavors. The kids didn’t care for the peppermint or cinnamon as they thought they was too spicy. Some of us older folks liked the wintergreen flavor but lemon was the majority vote.

I actually found a little time on Tuesday to paint my nails too! Mommas need a little bit of pampering from time to time. 😊

Wednesday

Wednesday morning we changed our breakfast routine a bit. Instead of Muffins the kids had a bowl of fresh fruit and a cup of yogurt.

I’m really loving this new fruit bowl I got earlier this month. It is so much bigger than the one we had, plus it’s not as fragile. The banana holder is a great feature as well. It keeps the kids from dragging out and bruising all of the bananas just to find the ‘perfect’ apple.

While cleaning the bathroom I got a call from Walgreens …. NOT… it was a telemarketer call disguised as a local business. I HATE these kind of calls. They wanted to help me with my interest rate on a card they knew nothing about.

After politely asking a strongly accented Chris Sawyers to remove me from the list I had to threaten to report them to the authorities for FRAUD. He asked me to hold online while he removed me from the list. I did hold, with the phone muted and the receiver set on the shelf, and an hour later I was still on hold… haha Mr. Sawyers from card services you’ve won a mention on my blog. Congrats!

After our morning chores were finished we played one of the new games that we’ve gotten:

  Bugs Building is similar to the once popular Jenga game. They had a lot of fun playing the game but then we had some major midweek meltdowns!

Luckily I still had a hidden stash of FREE chocolates…

Thursday

Hmmm… Thursday was a kinda gloomy day, very rainy and windy too. We didn’t get our laundry done because of the weather but it got finished up on Friday. We were also without power for a little while that morning.

The kids made the best of no electricity and played some board games. I think they thought they were getting out of chores but everyone had to help finish up the chores when the power came back on. Then it was time for some lunch which was Grilled Cheese Sandwiches.

After I got the kids down for quiet time I got this text message from Mr. Awesome:

Oh boy do I love these kind of messages. I dug my outfit out of the closet and got to work on making some dinner. I had planned to make Spaghetti but opted for Sloppy Joes when I realized I didn’t have any noodles.

Unfortunately I didn’t get any pics of the Pink Cadillac Dance or our super cute outfits because my phone was acting up again.

Friday

Friday was Moon Day and we celebrated with some Moon Pies for an afternoon snack. That morning we finished up the laundry for the week and caught up on few things that needed done around the house.

After paying a couple of bills I went ahead and renewed our ABC Mouse that the kids have been begging for. They wasted no time getting on their and taking care of their virtual pets. Joey also made sure to update his avatar:

Those glasses look almost like his and they are just too cute!

That afternoon I went to make some our favorite Cream Cheese Chicken with Rice and Green Beans only to realize I didn’t have any cream of chicken soup… I don’t know what happened when I went grocery shopping last week but I guess I didn’t do a good job. I did finish dinner and it was really good with the substitutions I made so I’ll try to get that updated recipe posted soon.

That evening we went to the square dance. Again I didn’t get any pics because my phone died but I did get that video finished. I’ll have it at the end of the post.

Saturday

I had planned to get the porch cleaned up a bit but the constant thunderstorms kept us inside. The morning was spent tidying up around the house and then we went out to eat at Golden Corral. It wasn’t the best experience and we probably won’t visit that location again but the kids enjoyed it.

After eating we headed to the movies to watch the new Ant Man movie. It was pretty good and everyone had a great time. All in all it was a good week and we are really looking forward to a great time in the upcoming week.

This week I plan to get some of the lessons entered into the Homeschool Manager app and also set a date for us to start school. I will also be working on a couple of more promo videos for square dancing as many clubs will be starting classes in September.

As far as cleaning the FlyLady missions will be in the Master Bedroom this week. I just need to do a tidying up in there so I’m not really sure how much I will get done in there. I would really like to get the porch cleaned off and have some usable space out there but the weather hasn’t been cooperating.

What are your goals for the upcoming week?

Below are some other things that we’ve done this past week and that video we put out for square dancing.

Other books we’ve read this week were:

Be A Good Dragon is a cute book about a dragon with a cold.

Yum! A Preston Pig Story is a variation of the ‘Three Little Pigs’ that kids enjoyed.

We got lots of goodies in the mail this week:

  Merriam-Webster’s First Dictionary

Merriam-Webster’s Rhyming Dictionary

Circle Time Activities

Social and Emotional Learning in Middle School: Essential Lessons for Student Success

All Thru the School Year: 540 Reward Stickers

Nature Adventures! A Guidebook of Nature Facts, Songs, and Hikes in San Diego County

Animal Tracks: North American Animals A to Z

I was really excited to get these books and hopefully the kids will get to use them some this weekend.

 Dr. Seuss Read-Along Set

This week I also posted these posts here (which may have affiliate links to some of the products above):

One Person’s Boredom Is Another’s Security

Amazon Back To School Lightning Deals: July 20, 2018

Kirby’s Kids: Our 2018-2019 Homeschool Curriculum Reveal

Nanny’s No Bake Coconut Cream Pie

Moon Day

Haystacks aka Noodle Cookies

We are looking forward to a new week with lots of new surprises. So far we have these activities planned.

Upcoming Events/Holidays:

AMELIA EARHART DAY July 24

AUNT AND UNCLE DAY July 26

Here is that video I promised:

Elephant Fuzz, Building Bugs, Poodle Skirts and Moon Day; A Week In Review We have had quite the week again. Fun and crazy as usual. Keep reading to find out about some of our many adventures here in the little house on the pond.