Family

Bored Daughter and Imagination

My daughter sometimes has the need to be entertained. When her best bud/sister is not around, she has to seek out people to help her get entertained. Today, her father was volunteered to get injured.

I volunteered my hairy left arm. Hairy arms seems to me be more challenging then smooth surfaces. It took a bit of work. (The process involves a tissue as the “wound”. A mixture of Vaseline and red die was spread over the tissue. Once the tissue was moistened with the Vaseline, the wound was formed. Cocoa powder was sprinkled on the wound and worked in to darken the “blood”.) She went after with great enthusiasm. In fact, she enjoyed it so much, she went on to create an injury on her shin.

Boys Liked The Book Thief

The weekends are for family time. When you are a frugal family, you check to see if any good movies have graduated (or demoted, but for my dollar the “graduation” mean more buying power). This past weekend, The Book Thief had made its move. I felt certain the girls would enjoy the movie. My concern was whether it would have enough action for the boys. A different movie, 47 Ronin, started a few minutes later, so I thought we could all see a movie we enjoyed and the whole crew would be happy.

The girls started in about being tired or needing to sew or needing to rest or, what is most likely the case, just needing to be teenage girls without having to share a row in a movie theater with adults. This, of course, complicated our decision. Our 7th grader needed to do a project for school on the Holocaust. (The Hitler Youth…I think) I felt confident the movie would provide some good background. Since they won’t be our “girls” much longer, I still lobbied strongly (some may describe it as threatening to a point nearing duress). Once our youngest son thought the thief might be fine for him too, I gave in and stopped applying pressure. It was decided they would stay home and the rest of us would go.

When we got to the theater, I bought 4 tickets to the thief. (Our oldest son thought he was still seeing the Ronin flick) No popcorn, but the normal LOTS of previews of movies that did not seem to fit the standard profile of those who might enjoy the movie. (One of my 7th grade daughters classmates was at the movie with his parents. Obviously, he was not going to relax in his efforts to strive to be valedictorian.) Not sure when TV shows started advertising during the previews, but I don’t really care for it. I believe my family (and many of the families there) did not care about a family of millionaires showing how bad their behavior was every week. For me, it was a reminder of one network I don’t want to watch.

Both Judy and I enjoyed the movie. And, the boys both seemed to enjoy it as well. So much loss and so much suffering. Likely, not as many deaths as in the Ronin movie, but definitely quite a few. Whether it was the deaths or the softening of the teenage-nearing-adult hearts as they witnessed the suffering of individuals rather than “warriors”, the boys/men enjoyed the movie as well.

I cannot say for sure, but I am guessing they are more mature than I was at their age. And, if this is so, then they probably have a chance in surpassing me emotionally AND every other way….

College Visit and HPB Visit

You know you are a bit too much of a book lover when you are planning visits to Half Price Books stores after extended drives.

Jeff and I are visiting Oklahoma Christian University on Labor Day weekend 2013. As we are making our plans for the 3+ hour drive, I am putting all of my important things in the car:

My 54 oz QT cup. It is ready to hold the vital “black mango” tea. I try not to travel more than a few hours without.
The address in Edmond for the HPB store.
Address for Oklahoma Christian.
Some Christian music CDs. (Switchfoot is prominent in our selections.)
And, a swim suit. (The basic travel change of clothes and jammies is assumed. 😉 )

I am looking forward to spending a few hours with my son, Jeff. Since he was not early to get his permit, the drive to Edmond will allow him to log about 6 hours for the round trip.I would prefer to sleep like he generally does when we drive any distance, but I will likely have to settle for being a 2nd set of eyes to my 2nd born.

Parents with Kids on PayPal

I had one of thos random calls from PayPal today trying to upgrade my service. It started out the service rep asking about the person who owned SignsSeen.com over 5 years ago. And, a little detective work, and she ended up talking to me.

Apparently, PayPal now offers a “feature” for folks who own a few websites but get tired of managing all of the websites separately. One of the accounts can be set up as the “parent” account and the other accounts are set up as children accounts. The biggest benefit is all of the “children” accounts have the funds sent up to the “parent” everynight. And, I did confirm that reconciling the accounts is still a fairly easy process. So, we will see if I agree when I reconcile next month.

Of course, I couldn’t avoid asking a “cute” question. My children are my existing accounts and my parent is my NEW account. My question, “So, which comes first the parent or the child? The child.”

I am not Dr. Mom….

When the kids need cold medicine or a gentle hand with cuts and scrapes, they need to go to mom. But, when it comes to home dentistry, they come to dad. And, this was especially evident this weekend.

Both of my girls had loose teeth. “Dentist Dads” weapon of choice is a standard piece of dental floss. On daughter #1, the tooth was very loose. I tied a loop in the floss, and it easily went around her tooth. She put her hands over her mouth. And, a quick pull of both ends of the floss, and the tooth was extracted. Daughter #2 also had a loose tooth, but it needed more coaxing. The same technique was used, but my daughter provided all of the early floss pulling power. Dentist Dad had to nudge the string into the area between the gum and the tooth. After my daughter nearly gave up and timidly requested to sleep the night with the floss sticking out of her mouth, Dentist Dad performed the final stages of the extraction. She forgot all of her pain, and gave me her beautiful toothless smile.

Just doing me job……

Will this teach them entrepreneurialism?

Despite my existing website and other projects, I like to look over ebay and see what kind of businesses are available. And, if any of them are in the right price range and meet my other requirements, I may open up a email discussion. And, depending how that goes, we might talk on the phone. And, occasionally I may end up purchasing one. Well, recently this happened. And, what follows is my logic for this investment….my sons need to learn business skills, and I think I have the vehicle.

My father was a very well meaning man. He worked very hard. However, he had no desire to work for himself. He had the energy and the smarts, but he did not have the tools or the belief he could succeed. I don’t want my sons to feel they are unskilled an incapable of owning their own business. So, since they are often short on motivation, I want them to have a short term incentive (money) and a longer term investment-ownership.

Since I am early in the process, I am sure my preliminary logic is missing factors that will influence the eventual success or failure of my plan. But, until then, this is why I think my recent purchase of an ebay business will be beneficial for my sons:

Teaches quality: As my sons worked the first night after the “equipment” arrived, they were not familiar with the equipment being used. And, unfortunately, this resulted in a cutting the product incorrectly. They asked, “Dad, it is close to the right size. Won’t it be alright?” And, after I said “no”, I went on the explain how important it is to give your customers the best you can give them. In the days of “cheap” products, I hope other dads are trying to teach there sons the same lessons.
Teaches discipline: After school activities and a very busy day, there were orders that needed fulfilled. And, rather than saying, “tomorrow will be okay”, they stayed up well past their normal bedtime to get it done. Our/their customers chose to buy their product. The customers had other choices, but yet gave them their money. If you can’t take care of your customers, then your priorities are wrong. And, if at the end of the process, they don’t want to be responsible for taking care of customers, then they would have come to that conclusion based on experience.
Teaches marketing: Why do people buy from you? Is it your ebay feedback? Is it your price? Is it being at the right place at the right time? It could be a combination of all of those things. As we learn this product together, we can discuss those issues. And, it will not offend me at ALL if they out think me. If fact, it will let me know the experiment is on track. (And, that the teacher isn’t completely crazy!)
Teaches Profit: What happens if we lower our price? Can we switch suppliers or talk to our present supplier and reduce our product cost? Can we reduce our shipping cost? Their labor may be cheap, but that doesn’t mean they can’t think about the bottom line and understand how they can contribute.

If this experiment is of interests to you, please let me know! Give me your experiences or your ideas to challenge them. Regardless, I am hopeful additional posts will follow….

Somethings are still almost free…

We have lived in our house for nearly 10 years. And, as all things start to wear out, we have experienced a few of these issues lately. And, surprisingly, some of them were free….

The first one was NOT free – Our ice maker on the refrigerator has continued to work fine. (We developed a theory about the cleaning lady and how her appearances correlated to the dispensers performance, but that is not the subject of this post.) BUT, we had an extensive period of having to drink water from the sink when the water dispenser (yes, it dispenses filtered water) moved from “fickle” to absolute revolt. And, after procrastination, two visits from 2 gentlemen who had less than a rocket science education and the parting with a few dollars, it was fixed.
Keys can be replaced – The Gruenbaums like to take vacations. And, when we do, our kids rebel if they need to sit on the suitcases. (And, they seem to not be as safe when buckled to a suitcase.) So, we often have our luggage carrier mounted to the top of the van. And, this has proven to be a very good solution for keeping parents and kids happy. However, since the luggage carrier needs keys to lock it, it is essential that the keys be located when the carrier is being used. Unfortunately, we have had the opportunity to test bungie cords as a key substitute, and they are lacking in many areas. When necessity dictates, a phone number is often available to provide hope to those who are concerned their inability to pack lightly enough. And, as I found out recently, it is usually as simple as providing the number engraved on the lock. The charge for news keys is FAR less than a new luggage carrier.
I need a sprayer to spray off the dishes – I will never be accused of loving to wash dishes, but marriages are not always about my happiness. So, I do find it necessary to get in there occasionally and “bust out a few”. Prior to the spraying trigger breaking, this was no problem. After it broke, my appearance before the dual porcelain dispenser of cleanliness were much fewer. As I tried to alleviate this problem by visiting hardware stores and searching websites, I did not have much luck. The phone again came to the rescue. On the back of the faucet is a style number and after correctly guessing “Almond” as our color, we had a new sprayer 2 days later. (This is not the venue to discuss style changes since we bought the original 10 years ago and the difficulty in changing the hose out under the cramped sink.)
Shiny hardware is important – What started out as a small leak on the top of the foundation in the basement resulted in us getting a storm door on the back door. (Since I have been understating quite a bit, I will just say our builder wasn’t perfect.) After the door had been on awhile, the outside hardware began to tarnish. Since tarnish doesn’t bother me, it didn’t get my attention until it stopped latching entirely. (Others in my household to get more upset with tarnish, though. ) And, after visiting the same hardware store and being told none of the hardware matched, I was told, “Call the manufacture and give them the serial #. And, if though the latch doesn’t work, tell them it is tarnished, and they should replace it.” And, they did–I think. The new hardware should arrive within the week–NO CHARGE.

House maintenance items don’t always come in such bundles. But, when they do next time, I will be much quicker to grab the phone, and look for answers on what is broken.

I am a pill-swallowing bigot

This is not something I am proud of. And, it is not something I realized was part of my “growing-up” training, but I am a pill-swallowing bigot.

Of course, to clarify, I don’t take lots of pills for pain, addiction, or any other contrived illness. I take a few vitamins every morning (my wife isn’t much of a fish eater, so I have to have the Omega-3), so this is the extent of my pill-popping. I put my vitamins in a weekly plastic container, and I drop all of them in my mouth at one time and swallow them all together. My wife and kids stare in awe…..

My wife coaches the kids, “Put some liquid in your mouth, then drop the pill in. Take in some more liquid, and relax your tongue.”

And, while I can’t disagree with some of her advice, I can’t help but snicker a bit. My advice is more like, “Put the pill in your mouth, and take a drink. Visualize/nudge the pill into the swallowing flow, and just let it go down.”

As the kids practiced with Smarties this morning with the hopes that they will soon be able to swallow their vitamins (graduating from the chewables), I continued to smile and listen to my wife’s coaching. She is better than me at many things, but I can swallow EIGHT pills at one time!!!

It is what siblings do….

I just met a business partner this morning to prepare some “baskets” for our customers and hope-to-have customers. Typically, when we meet I drag some number of my 4 kids along. However, today, he had all 3 of his kids. While we were trying to figure out how to use a small trash can with a step on lid (my company sells janitorial supplies), his kids played nicely kicking a soccer ball around the warehouse. But, as the mornings donuts became fully integrated into the kids systems, it got a little crazier. We knew we needed to finish quickly when the youngest child had the middle child in a neck lock.

First, these were very good kids. But, as a father, the kids either know we are not as strict as the mothers or they just were sick of the day being about daddy’s errands. And, after having lived through similar embarrassing experiences where my kids seemed like wholly terrors in front of business parters (or grocery shoppers or fellow restaurant diners), it was a relief to know that siblings are just that way.

Second, the family dynamics are similar. The youngest kid knows they can yell and the parents may jump a little quicker knowing the parents wonder how they are being tortured. And, the older child is expected not to participate in behavior that leads mom and dad to be involved. So, the youngest child knows how to make the world revolve around them.

Third as much as siblings are capable of driving each other crazy, they also have a special ability to work with (and also torment) their siblings in ways that no one else can. Even when they claim to hate their siblings, they are also realizing that 30 minutes from now they will be playing (or existing together) with no hard feelings about the “ancient” comments.

Lastly, as a parent, it gives us profound relief when we know that other parents occassionally struggle as they attempt to give the world the best kids they can. With very few exceptions, no one event will alterate a child beyond repair. As parents, we hope we put in enough good to balance out the bad. And, if that fails, you hope your prayers can tip the scales…..

Christmas Letter (1999)

Dear friends and family:

Holiday Greetings from the Gruenbaums!! As the days and hours click by on the 20^th Century, we hope you are investing all of your free time stocking your bomb shelter. We plan on going to the moon for New Year’s, but we wish all who will be earth bound good luck.

Andy had a very active year. He started the year working as an Internet consultant at Battelle. He then spun the roulette wheel and worked on the Victoria’s Secret web site for a few months. However, Andy was last seen serving as a Systems Engineer (Business Analyst) at Qwest Communications. He seems to be happy…… In August, Andy said goodbye to late nights and excessive computer time. He received his Masters in Business Administration from Franklin University.

Judy continues her work at Bank One. Although she thought about leaving earlier in the year, it has calmed down a bit and is going better. She was very active in the speech-making department this year. It was her fourth year to teach at Northwestern University at an Employee Benefits Trust School. She was also invited to address a bunch of bank examiners (the feds) in San Diego, and she made her radio debut as a guest host on a weekly call in show about financial planning in Louisiana.

The boys are the highlight of our life. Both are enjoying their first year of preschool. Timmy (age 4 ½) is a bit more serious (and dramatic) than his brother, and is anxious to learn how to read. Timmy is capable of answering many of the first round questions on “Do You Want To Be A Millionaire?” When he is not asking questions or troubleshooting our old PC, he works on polishing his acting skills. Although Jeffy (age 3 ½) is all play, he has really blossomed this year. He gives his heart into everything he does, but will drop everything to color or eat candy. They bring us our greatest joy!!

No one every said having a new house is cheap. We concentrated on the outside this summer by investing in a swing set, a tractor, a brick patio, seeding the yard and a little landscaping. Thankfully, the boys are really careful mowing around me while we play on the slide. 🙂 We had a big garden, and were very concerned that our corn would be eaten by the numerous coons and deer nearby. But, alas, the drought got it instead. We will try again next year.

The family was fortunate to have two vacations this year: Rat World (Disney) and Country Music’s Eastern Home (Gatlinburg). The boys loved the swimming and the parents loved that they were away from their jobs. Finally this year, we have really placed an importance on the spiritual side of our lives. We are at the church a couple of nights per week and are very involved. We teach Sunday School, sing in the choir, and are involved in Bible studies.

It is God’s gift of His Son that gives value to the last Christmas of this millennium and all the Christmases of the next millennium. May God bless you with a desire to really know Him in the coming year.

The Gruenbaums