{"id":9729,"date":"2013-12-13T15:09:38","date_gmt":"2013-12-13T22:09:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/?p=9729"},"modified":"2013-12-20T16:17:11","modified_gmt":"2013-12-20T23:17:11","slug":"finshed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/?p=9729","title":{"rendered":"Finished."},"content":{"rendered":"

I know some of you went for the “one and done” philosophy of parenting.\u00a0 Which is smart, if somewhat obsessive.\u00a0 After all, what is the point of worrying endlessly over 1 child when you could be trying to ignore 4 children equally instead?<\/p>\n

Since we have 4 children that had to pass through the same rituals of walking, speaking, potty training, first day of school, etc, we never felt very finished when Big accomplished one of these things.\u00a0 It just didn’t seem that celebratory to say, as we were putting away the potty seat:
\n“Sweet!\u00a0 Only 3 more kids and 9 more years of diapers to go!”<\/p>\n

Just like it doesn’t feel that encouraging now that he’s close to getting his braces out to think:<\/p>\n

“Awesome!\u00a0 Only 3 more kids and $10,000,000 in teeth extractions and orthodontia to pay for!”<\/p>\n

But with Little, the passage of events often does seem like a real milestone.\u00a0 An actual marker that we have passed and will not have to go back to.\u00a0 A step forward that isn’t just walking in circles.\u00a0 Crossing the finish line.\u00a0 Walking into the light at the end of a tunnel.<\/p>\n

Albeit, a long tunnel.\u00a0 A long, long dark tunnel.\u00a0 Very dark.\u00a0 That you just crawled through on your hands and knees.\u00a0 Naked.\u00a0 In 20 degrees (which, for us Southerners feels like -20 degrees).\u00a0 With kids yelling, “Mom!\u00a0 Mom?\u00a0 Mommy? Mom!\u00a0 Mommy!” in your face the entire time.<\/p>\n

I’m just sayin.’<\/p>\n

So when Little performed in the 3rd grade play, “Tall Tales” this week, it was really enjoyable.\u00a0 Because we would never have to sit, crammed onto the school bleachers in the gym, shoulder to shoulder and kneecap to kneecap, through “Tall Tales” again.\u00a0 We would never have to argue with a child about what he was supposed to wear for a costume or rush off to Goodwill the night before, searching for the right kind of shirt or hat or prop.\u00a0 We would never have to smile and nod pleasantly at the children speaking into the microphone when we could really only hear or understand every third word that they said.\u00a0 We would not have to flinch when the speakers squealed or feel our heart pounding in commiseration as a child stumbled over forgotten lines.\u00a0 We could grin at the other parents as we all climbed over one another to get down after the performance, clapping each other on the back, and say along with them, “Whew.\u00a0 Well, that was fun.\u00a0 And now it’s over with.”\u00a0 And actually mean it.<\/p>\n

Finished.\u00a0 After 4 performances of “Tall Tales.”\u00a0 After 1 lumberjack, 1 Paula Prunepit, 1 deck swab, and 1 Pecos Bill, we were finally done.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Yeah, yeah, I know.\u00a0 When I’m older I’ll wish I got to sit in the gym, listening to my kids sing about a blue ox craving pancakes.\u00a0 But judging by the fact that my parents were crammed onto the bleachers next to me, I probably will.\u00a0 At least I’ll be spared the last minute trip to Goodwill.\u00a0 And the 2,ooo explanatory and friendly reminder emails sent to me by the teacher, leading up to the performance.\u00a0 Plus, I’m bringing one of those portable padded bleacher seat things.\u00a0 Because I already climbed through a tunnel on my knees.\u00a0 I should be allowed to sit on bleachers in comfort.<\/p>\n

In any case, congratulations to Pecos Bill.\u00a0 And congratulations to us.\u00a0 For sitting through our last “Tall Tales” performance and finishing many years of horrible picture-taking in the gym.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But that’s not all we’re celebrating around here.<\/p>\n

After 6 years I finally finished walk-through gates for the barn yard and buck pasture.\u00a0 I have been waiting for years for someone to build me walk-through gates.\u00a0 The main holdup was that it\u00a0 involved post hole digging.\u00a0 I have mentioned before that I do not dig post holes.\u00a0 But with the completion of the new buck barn, I was inspired to relocate some fencing so that I could install the gates where some poor sap had already dug posts holes and installed nice 4X4 posts (in concrete!).\u00a0 It’s the starling method of construction.\u00a0 Someone else does the hard work of building something nice and solid and I take over and attach my friend’s used hand-me-down gates, hinges from Southern States, a couple of found chain link fork branches, and leftover aluminum tent poles. Voila!\u00a0 Finished!<\/p>\n

An easy, peasy main entrance to the barn yard:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And a simply effortless entrance to the buck barn and chicken pen:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

No more squeezing through cattle panels, getting scratched on chicken wire,\u00a0 and dealing with chains and carabiner clips.<\/p>\n

In addition, I finally finished the Christmas decorating.\u00a0 Just under the wire.\u00a0 Because once we’re more than halfway to Christmas, we tend to settle for candy cans in a glass on the counter as our main form of decorating.\u00a0 But the stockings are now hung, the Christmas greenery is in place, and the wreaths are on the doors.\u00a0 And my latest DIY decor explains exactly how I feel about that:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ah.\u00a0 Finished.<\/p>\n

I’m not the only one, though.\u00a0 The younger kids just finished their last day of school before Christmas break.\u00a0 Now they’re off for 3 weeks.<\/p>\n

Peace out, people.\u00a0 It might be a while before you hear from me……<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know some of you went for the “one and done” philosophy of parenting.\u00a0 Which is smart, if somewhat obsessive.\u00a0 After all, what is the point of worrying endlessly over 1 child when you could be trying to ignore 4 children equally instead? Since we have 4 children that had to pass through the same […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9729"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9755,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9729\/revisions\/9755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}