Weaponry

I bought my children water guns.

I'm sure some of you would Tsk! me rather loudly for equipping my innocent offspring with a tool of violence. But water guns are one of my few happy childhood memories. For brief hours each summer our family could shrug off our mantel of dysfunction and simply play together like a healthy family.

As children we had the full Super Soaker gear. We had tool belts to hold extra water cartridges and the biggest guns available in the early 90s. Everyone but Mom was equipped with a water gun that could shoot 50 feet or more.



My brother, sister and I stalked around the yards hiding from our dad. Like in other areas of life it was us against him.

I grew up in Missouri in which yards are real spaces for playing. Our front yard was 3 or 4 times bigger than the ones here in Salem. There were side yards that were the size of most back yards here. And the back yard might as well have been a park compared to Salem back yards. We would hide in the many bushes and nooks around the house with our neon green and hot pink water pistols. Being 7 and 10 years older than my siblings had some advantages like enough brain power for strategy and how to hide without laughing. I often would trick them into being a sacrificial lamb so I could run past my dad without get squirted.

We all ended up soaking, sopping wet after an hour of play.

Those are some of my best memories of childhood. While my childrens 5 for $4 water guns may not compare to the massive Super Soakers of today I think they had a lot of fun and its something we will do often, all summer long.

Scissors

I just realized as I washed my hands in the bathroom that every room in our home has a pair of scissors.

The bathroom had a pair of kids' sized scissors just sitting on the counter (I have no idea why but they are usually there). Our bedroom has a pair by the sink for trimming mustaches and removing clothing tags (multi purpose for sure). The kitchen has two pair of kitchen shears. The dining area has 1 or 2 pairs in the basket on top of the microwave. The kids' room has a pair of safety scissors tucked safely out of reach from The Squirrel. The office has my sewing scissors and a pair of paper scissors. I have a small fold up pair by my laptop in the living room for knitting, plus another small kids' sized pair for some reason.

Yet, I still covet more scissors.

I want these



I wouldn't turn down the rotary cutter either ;)

Humans are killing everything

Its alarming. And I feel helpless and hopeless.

Nearly one third of the world's wildlife has been lost since 1970

This is the world we are leaving for our children. I am frightened.

The current extinction rate is 10,000 times faster than the biological norm recorded in the fossil record.

"You'd have to go back to the extinction of the dinosaurs to see a decline as rapid as this," ZSL scientist Jonathan Loh, editor of the report, said. "In terms of human times-scales we may be seeing things change relatively slowly, but a decline of 30 percent in the space of a single generation is unprecedented in human history."

If I post here will they read it?

Each and every day I hope my bloglines reader and hope against hope that my favorite bloggers will have posted something. A peek through their windows and into their lives.

I appreciate these glances into slivers of life to which I may not otherwise be privy. They are often highly entertaining (even outlandishly revealing) and sometimes mundane but I still want my look. We all have something to say. A wish to be heard and understood.

I am listening and I want to understand. Keep posting. Keep sharing.