Sunday, May 11, 2008

A Mother of a Day.



"I'd like to be the ideal mother,
but I'm too busy raising my kids."- Unknown



I started my day with a 2hr lesson for a student who couldn’t come on Friday because he was having fun somewhere else.
Our lesson was interrupted by the sound of screeching from the yard.

Daughter 1 “Be careful Granddad!”
Daughter 2 “The cat’s going to fall!”
Daughter 1 “Granddad’s going to fall.”
Grandma “Get down from there before you fall.”

I went to investigate and found the cat up a tree and Granddad,
who is 87, up a ladder. Both my children and Grandma were shouting at him from below. My husband was drinking coffee and ignoring the situation.

My student, never one to miss an opportunity to get out of grammar lessons, sprinted into action. He soon had Granddad off the ladder and the cat out of the tree and the whole family praising him for saving us..

This is pretty normal.

Other events of the day include comforting my youngest daughter who was upset when a fly landed in her bath. She tried to save it but it died. She was upset because she wasn’t sure if it had drowned or if she had killed it during the rescue attempt.
Whatever, she now wants to bury it in the garden.

Further death and disaster was thankfully averted when she remembered that she had a snail in her pocket and managed to remove it before it suffered any permanent damage. It is now installed in a box, on a bed of lettuce, for the night and will be reintroduced to the wild tomorrow morning.

I’m happy to have the snail as a houseguest as it isn’t that long since my daughter caught a cockroach and put it in a box with some breadcrumbs. Needless to say I did not let it stay overnight.



You know you’re a mother when…

Your child throws up and you catch it.
You hide in the bathroom to be alone.
You stop criticizing the way your mother raised you.

or in my case…
you don’t swat flies.
Come to think of it today was fairly uneventful.

20 comments:

lime said...

oh my stars...we've had burials for fish and pet mice but never a fly. and yes, i'd have to draw the line at a cockroach too...ugh....

Travis Cody said...

That's hilarious!

Jocelyn said...

I actually can't wait to be alone in the bathroom one day.

But point taken!

It's not too wrong of me to want to push your husband down, is it?

Vinny "Bond" Marini said...

LOL what a day...and Happy Mother's Day to you

Akelamalu said...

That sounds like me Dad - 83 and 5 months after having a hip replacement he's digging the garden over! :0

val said...

Glad you saved the snail. I hate treading on them. Not that I actually like the slimey little plant destroyers.

Unknown said...

Your daughter sounds wonderful! You’re a great mom to being raising such a compassionate kid!

As for the cat, grandpa, and the tree: when Alex was a kitten I once spent all night coaxing him off a limb that was too high to even be reached with a ladder. When I shared the story with a friend who had been around cats much longer than I, he told me that I’d wasted my time. “You may notice,” he said, “that you never see a cat’s skeleton up in a tree.”

Elaine Denning said...

My cat was stuck on the roof, once.
He was there all day.
I watched him, beckoned him, worried about him. He was there for hours...crying for me to do something, so I did the only thing I could think of.
I called my Mum.
When she arrived she walked into the back garden, looked up at the cat, and yelled BARNEY! in the loudest voice I've ever heard coming from her mouth. He jumped right out of his skin, slid down the roof, landed on a smaller roof, slid down that one and landed upside down in next door's garden.

That was the day I decided Mum's don't always know best.

Happy Belated Mother's Day, Cathy. x

Sandy said...

My mom used to take tuitions for other kids during my school times. And there was one fellow who always had the attention to cats, dogs and pigs outside :)

puerileuwaite said...

Well then, now for no less than TWO reasons, I would love to be a "fly on the wall" in your house!

And if only I had a nickel for every time we had to call the Fire Department to get a drunken Granddad out of the tree. In fact, they named "Old Grand-Dad Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey" after the man.

Good times.

Schmoop said...

Ha. Great post Cathy. And by the way, you have a fantastic play list. Give my regards to Greece. Cheers!!

Anonymous said...

ah, the joys of motherhood... brought back memories.

I remember the ex putting carrot peelings in the children's bath and telling them they were goldfish... some men are such w***ers

snowelf said...

Cathy--this is one of the cutest posts ever!
My son LOVES all creatures big and small--I cannot tell you how many times he's caught Baby Ladybugs to make them pets. :)

Happy mother's day (late)

--snow

BBC said...

I wasn't a bad father, but I wasn't a great father. I just did the best I knew how.

HEY TOOT'S, LOOK AT WHAT I GOT.

robkroese said...

I stopped criticizing the way my mother raised me, but I still don't feel like a mother.

Unknown said...

Your youngest reminds me of someone....I just can't remember who....?

In Ink said...

This month I have been mostly eating SPAM...every time I see bbc make a comment which ends in a link to his blog.

Controversial? You betcha!

cathy said...

lime, I won't have a mouse or bird in the house.

travis, glad you liked it.

jocelyn, I have to sit with your back against the door. I don't have a lock on the bathroom in case of accidents.

bond, thankyou. most days are something like this.

akela, they don't make ém like they used to!

val, I don't like the crunching sound they make. eewww!


ssnick both my daughters are wonderful. thanks.

miss understood, Granddad said the same, he was enjoying himself up there.


sandy, There is always something outside that is more entertaining than the lesson. LOL.

pug, Our Granddad doesn't drink. Thank goodness, he is adventurous enough sober.

matt - man, Thanks my man.


Ann, LOL...carrot peelings!


snowelf, Happy Mother's Day to you too, very late!


bbc,We all just do the best we can.


diesal, I know about an operation... LOL.


pauline, lier! you know it's you.


in ink, It's friendly spam. LOL.

In Ink said...

SPAM is never friendly unless lightly fried in lard and served with an equally fried egg. On a butty. After a particularly hard night of drinking. In Blackpool. It has to be in Blackpool or it doesn't work.

Best regards,
Needs To Get Out More.

Logophile said...

I keep hearing " These years go so fast," "Treasure every moment," etc. etc. etc. Yet when I offer to send the Things home with these kind offerers of wise words they are always busy, hmmm