Lisa n Tom (n James n Joseph)

Christi writes: "St. George Triathlon last weekend. Tim, Bre and Tay all took 1st in their divisions. Madi and Christi took 5th in their divisions and Christian came in 15th. There were over 400 people! It was a lot of fun :) Anyone want to run it with us next time?"

Lisa writes: Yesterday was Earth Day and tomorrow is Arbor Day. This means if you are an American elementary school student you are up to your ears in global warming and drowning polar bears right about now. I used to watch Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom on Sundays and think that animals were beautiful and amazing. Now, I watch Animal Planet and every episode ends with, "but these beautiful animals are in trouble and if we don't save them soon, they may disappear." Every single episode leaves me curled in a fetal position, rocking back and forth. The animals are all going to die, and it's all my fault. The world would be a better place if people weren't here. That's what I've learned from Animal Planet lately. Yesterday, I saw one author sum it up well: "I wonder if the pendulum has swung and climate change threatens to become for kids today what nuclear proliferation was for kids of my generation in the 1970s and '80s: a source of existentia...

Lisa writes: Look! Look! Look what we have in the planter on our front porch! Aren't they beautiful? Here's hoping mama robin has nerves of steel to withstand the trauma of our daily comings and goings.

4/15/09 Lisa writes to Christi: "How are the chickens? Still got 6 out of 6?" Christi replies: "So far..." 4/16/09 Christi writes: "I spoke too soon...Breanna's little chick got her wings today. I came home from work and Bre, Tay and Christian were all crying and making a coffin for "Speck PeeWee Parsons." Yep, she was the runt (that's why Bre chose her...she could relate). Madison, however, has hardened in her old age. She thinks they're all crazy, "It's just a chicken...we eat them all the time. That's the benefit of being at the top of the food chain, people!" Christian told her to "go away!" so he could mourn. Taylor wants to be a vegetarian now. Breanna is asking for another chick...I told her "Speck" would feel betrayed...it's better to just remember the good times."

Lisa writes: We have a hard-working bird building a nest in the hanging planter on our front porch. It's a male robin. We haven't seen a female. Do they build the nest first and then go get a mate? Here's the "before" picture, when he was checking out the location three days ago. Here's what it looked like this morning. If you click to enlarge, you can see how he cleverly made use of the left-over Christmas tree tinsel he found stuck in our lawn. Bird bling. Ready for occupants! It's been so interesting watching him work on this. He brings some sticks and mud, puts them where he wants them, and then presses his belly into the nest as he turns in circles to form the shape of the bowl.

Lisa writes: Tom and I teach the 5 year old Sunday School class. Three weeks ago, we started prepping the kids for Easter. I asked, "What is the next holiday coming up?" All of the kids hollered, "Easter!" "Right!" I said, "And why do we celebrate Easter?" "Candy!" "Chocolate!" "The Easter Bunny!" they said. "Ok, but you know how Christmas isn't really about Santa Claus ..." I started. "It's about baby Jesus," one of them said. "Right! Exactly! So, Easter isn't really about the Easter Bunny. What is Easter really about?" No answers. None of them had a clue. Now, you can't really blame them. These guys are five. That means last Easter was the first time they even had the faintest idea what was going on, and it was a whole year ago. But I think they've got it now. Fast forward to yesterday. We asked the question again, "Why do we celebrate Easter?" and one lit...

Lisa writes: Christi and company got chicks for Easter. The original idea was to get four hens and set them up in a pen in the backyard where the kids could learn some responsibility from tending them and gathering fresh eggs. Then Tim decided he wanted one, too. Then he talked Christi into getting one as "back-up." (Baby chicks have a pretty high mortality rate, see.) So now they are a six-chicken family. Each kid got to pick their own bird. Christian, the 7 year old, was lobbying hard for a rooster. His logic was, "I don't want a GIRL chicken. There are enough GIRLS in this family already." There is no way the neighbors would appreciate 5 a.m. crowing, and roosters can be mean. Plus, Christian can't tell the difference between a girl chick and a boy chick, so I think they just let him pick out a chick that was a different color from the rest. As far as he knows, that makes it a boy. Yesterday, they introduced the chicks to the dogs. Scout is the blonde one...

Lisa writes: We went over to Tom's mom's house for an Easter brunch this morning, and while we waited for the rest of the gang to arrive, we turned on the hi-fi and put on the nearest record -- Burt Bacharach's greatest hits. Am I the only person who didn't realize that this (1983) was a cover of this song (1965) below?

Lisa writes: Remember the clothes swap I did in February? (If not, here's what I wrote about it then .) My friend Julie invited her Polish journalist friend. And now we're all famous in Poland! Completely undecipherable Polish magazine article is here . Only slightly more intelligible Google Translator-ified article here . I like that she said I was well-organized. At least, I think that's what she said.

Lisa writes: Tom says he was all about the Richard Scarry books for a while. I read a quote from Scarry once where he said he wrote books that were meant to be dog-eared and held together with tape. That's the sign of a good kid's book. We liked Richard Scarry books at our house, too. I very vividly remember this one to the right. That chair is DOOMED. Tom says he liked Roald Dahl's "James and the Giant Peach" for a while. I remember in third grade, the teacher had the smartest boy in the class read a chapter from this book out loud to us every day after lunch as a reward for being good. I thought that boy was awesome for getting such a spectacular privilege, but I also secretly thought I could have read it out loud better than he did. As little kids, and even older, Tom says they read a lot of Beatrix Potter. It's interesting to watch the evolution of children's books. Those sweet old bunny books are quite scary and occasionally gruesome. Right, Tom Kitt...

Lisa writes: I'm the oldest of five kids. Lori is close to my age, but Christi is 6 years younger, Donny is 10 years younger than I am and Debbie is just shy of 16 years younger. I read books to them, and their favorite books, I read over and over. Christi's favorite book growing up was "Dooly and the Snortsnoot" by Jack Kent. Classic 1972 watercolor. It is long out of print, but is worth picking up if you ever see it in a used book store or online. It teaches a good lesson about self-worth and hidden potential and the importance of eating your vegetables, and it has the snarliest snortsnoot in literary history. Donny's favorite book was Dr. Suess' "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish." I can still recite it, and I still want one of those pets with the blue hair to brush and comb. Debbie's favorite book was whatever the bigger kids were reading, but, barring that, she was partial to a padded plastic bathtub book called "My Little Pony...