Duct tape and Dolly - Suburban Shalom

Last week the two older girls went to a morning cheer camp each day. The Toddler was most upset that she wasn’t also attending the camp, so I had to convince her we could still have fun on our own. Only her idea of fun and mine are a bit different. One morning she wanted to do my hair. Since that’s a skill I haven’t yet mastered myself, I knew it would be interesting. Halfway through my “appointment” I heard her say:

“Oops. I didn’t meant to do that. This is not good.”

There are certain people who should never say “oops!” in your presence. Those people include {but are not limited to} your dentist, your surgeon, and your hairstylist.

Indeed, it was not good. Of course, it wasn’t wise on my part to trust a stylist whose own hair sometimes looks like this:

While I’m on the subject of hair…

The 2nd Grader is supposed to read fifteen books over the course of the summer. She’s almost halfway there, but we’ve run out of books that meet the criteria on her list. So, we ventured to the bookstore last week to find a few more chapter books. She enjoys biographies, and those are on the list, so I tried to steer her in the direction of someone like Amelia Earhart, Abraham Lincoln, Rosa Parks, Benjamin Franklin… Instead, she chose:

Of course she did. Now, I’m not saying that Dolly isn’t a historical figure. It’s just that she’s, you know, Dolly.

Truth be told, after the 2nd Grader finishes her chapters each evening, I read a chapter to the Kindergartener. And, I have to admit, the Dolly Parton story is very interesting. I’m not suggesting it be added to the American History textbooks or anything, but I highly recommend it to my fellow Tennessee-ans.

What I don’t recommend right now is letting young children have unlimited access to craft equipment like crayons, scissors, and tape. We’ve come to that point in the summer where the coloring books and watercolor sets are no longer interesting, and the girls are wanting to take their crafting to new levels. Earlier this week the 2nd Grader and the Toddler decided to get creative with the “cyclables” as one calls them. This was the end result: a recycled robot.

Projects like this remind me why I never buy name brand tape. I think they used two whole rolls assembling this. I’m generally all about encouraging creativity, but I’m about at my wit’s end with the Toddler’s most recent form of artistic expression. For some unknown reason, she colored a large section of a linen sofa with a blue crayon yesterday.

She has tried to blame the crime on everyone but herself, but she was seen holding a crayon that matches the markings mere moments before the discovery. And her usual scapegoat, Rosie the dog, doesn’t have access to the upstairs.

I’ve tried Dawn dish soap and even WD-40 {per Google’s suggestion}, but nothing has worked. In fact, I think I’ve made matters worse.

It seems that some weeks are just bound to go like this, though, because we’ve had one minor mishap after another.

On Tuesday the gearshift on our van got stuck in park and we had to employ a tow truck driver to resuscitate our car in a shopping strip. Fortunately, we were camped out in front of a catering restaurant that sells the best salted caramel cookies I’ve ever tasted. So, we made the most of that opportunity until my sister kindly rescued us from having to walk home.

But, most unfortunately, when we went later that evening to pick the van up from being serviced we discovered the air conditioning is now out. So rather than blowing cool air, it blows heat.

In other vehicle news, this happened to the Toddler’s trike Tuesday night:

And, this was the scene in our yard yesterday thanks to Rosie’s amazing digging skills:

If you have any large shrubs or small trees you need planted, she’s available for hire and can be paid in cash or peanut butter.

Hopefully today will go a little smoother. But, if not, we’ll think of Dolly Parton’s wise words, “The way I see it, if you want a rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.”

And in our case, today’s light rain means the van will only be steamy and not insufferable. So, at least there’s that!

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