Back when I lived in Gainesville, one of my very best friends, K, was right across the street. She was a home-schooling mother of five. Count ‘em – FIVE. Her oldest was a girl, and all the rest were boys. And this woman, she puts most other stay-at-home-moms to shame. She grinds her own wheat and bakes bread every other day. K keeps her house so spotless that even her own children don’t know how she does it, and she has time to be a great friend on top of it all.

As the mother of one daughter, I am fascinated by the lives of people with lots of children. I even knew one family back in Gainesville who I believe are up to baby number 11. *Gulp*

Anyway, I’ve been reading Tina’s MummifiedTimesFive blog for some time now. As the title of her blog explains, she is mom to five children. Tina is the mirror of my friend up in Gainesville, as she has four girls and one boy (the only boy being the oldest, just as K’s oldest is the only girl). She’s also a Mum from Down Under, that is to say – Australia. So, not only do I get a little peek into the life of a mom with lots of kids, I also get to see the day-to-day musings of someone halfway around the world.

Gigi is 5 now. Every summer up until now, I have cut her hair short.

I actually like long hair on little girls, but it gets very hot in Florida and her hair has been so fine that I cannot keep it up in a ponytail or braids. So, it would sit on her neck and she would sweat and her eczema would get inflamed. It was something that broke my heart even more than getting her hair cut.

By Christmas, her hair was always longer and looked OK in Christmas pictures. Nonetheless, she wants long hair as much as I want her to have long hair, so I looked hard for a solution.

I found that I can keep her fine hair up in ponytails if I use something like the Goody Stay-Put twin elastics with beads on the ends. I actually bought some with little flower-shaped beads, rather than the round one. Either way, I am able to pull her hair tight and still keep my hands on the bands. It is comfortable for her and now that her hair is off her neck, I don’t have to cut it this summer.

Or, do I?

Last week she came to me and asked if I would cut her bangs. She said they were getting in her eyes. I was more than happy to oblige. When I looked closer at her hair, though, I noticed she had already taken two huge chunks out of her bangs and one from the top of her ahead. She looked like a half bald baby bird!

I did my best to even out her bangs. They are now way too short and it looks like the poor kid has a mommy who screws up her hair. And, I have been working hard to get her bang-line to start closer to the front of her head. In order to try and hide the bald path on her crown I had to move her bang-line back a little. That looks a little odd, too. Poor kid.

I might be able to rectify this with a pixie haircut, but I just don’t think it would look right with her face. I am at a crossroads and debating this little pickle.

I want to think that after what happened to Victoria Lindsay here in Florida, that kids all over the United States would open their minds and learn a lesson. There are eight teens here that are now facing jail time. And, if the public has their way they will indeed see some time behind bars.

All of that could have been avoided if the kids involved had used some self control and not been lusting after dubious fame on the internet.

Some parents are still raising idiot children, I see. Out in Clarksville, Indiana on April 12, a mob of middle school girls lured a 12-year-old girl into a parking lot, beat her up, filmed the entire thing, and posted it on the Internet – PhotoBucket to be exact. The mob was made up of 12- to 14-year-old Clarksville Middle School students.

Police say they believe the debacle was inspired by the Florida YouTube beating.

If you think it is asinine to emulate the Florida beating after the world has seen the potential consequences; then get ready to hold onto your proverbial hat. It gets even more stupid. The victim is the daughter of a police officer. Way to pick your target, girls.

While I’m at it, I want to tell the girl you can see doing most of the hitting in the video that wearing hot pink satin jackets was not a good idea in the 1970s, and it only looks more idiotic now.

I cannot believe how much bigger and stronger the three remaining mockingbird chicks are now. It has only been a couple days and they have feathers and have lost most of their down.

One of the babies jumped up on a limb of the ficus tree to look around, but he made it back to the nest. Another baby followed suit, but it fell from the nest and the parents are currently pretty busy chasing it around the neighborhood. At my last check, I saw it across the street and two houses down. The mom and dad birds have their hands (wings) full with keeping an eye on the escaped baby and still feeding the two that are still in the nest.

Here is a picture of the first chick to venture out of the nest. He went back in and is sleeping soundly as I write this:

Here is one of the parents. The sun was at the wrong angle, so the picture is washed out, but it is sitting right next to my camera:

Finally, someone stood up and said something about the tacky fake bull’s testicles that too may low class morons are hanging from the back of their trucks.

I have a 5-year-old daughter and there is not way in the world I want to have to explain to her what they are. Not yet. And, to those who feel I should just make up some clever reply to cover it up for her: I do not lie to my daughter, ever. Therefore, talking to her about testicles is something I want to just put off for a few years.

This week the Florida State Senate started discussions about products like Your Nutz and BullsBalls. One senator suggested that the owners be subject to a $60 fine. The fate of the proposed bull could be decided as early as next week.

The sellers of the lowbrow accessories insist, “It’s a First Amendment thing.”

That is what most people say when they cannot think of a better rebuttal.

They are lewd and classless. I am all for finding those who insist on driving the roads with them attached to their vehicles. If they want to display balls, let them hang some from their rearview mirrors, where they can admit the ornaments themselves. Don’t; put them where all the drivers behind have to look at them.

There is sticky and then there is sticky. I am not talking about the kind of sticky that gets on your fingers after you’ve eaten a honey comb. I’m talking about the term people use to describe a website that has all the right elements needed to keep your visitors coming back over and over.

There are a number of things you can go to bring visitors back to your site:

1. Keep It Fresh
Make sure you keep the content fresh, new, and ever changing. When people know that they will always see new articles and information when they return to your site, they will eventually make returning a port of their internet surfing habits.

2. Incorporate user-generated content.
I use a discussion forum one of my websites. The members of the forum are constantly making posts that add to the useful content of my overall site. People come back daily to check and see what it new on the forums. Once there, the main site is not far from there I minds anymore.

3. Use a newsletter and a mailing list.
This is my favorite option, because it is not dependant upon people remembering on their own to return to your site. You are reaching out and bring them back.

So, let’s elaborate on my last point: a newsletter. It is easier than you think to put together a simple e-mail newsletter that you can send out weekly or monthly to your site’s visitors to keep them abreast of what’s happening on your site. You send out the hook and they come back to read more.

You might think it would be a lot of work, but you can actually use content you have already developed. By using Zookoda, a free application designed with bloggers in mind (though content providers with rss/atom feeds can utilize it as well), you mail out a summary of your latest blog entries as often as you like.

Your subscribers are people who have sited your blog and use the custom newsletter subscription forms that you place on your site. Once you’ve created your mailing list, you just schedule broadcasts for each day, week or month. Your newsletters can even match the design of your blog, and they can be formatted for mobile readers.

Creating the e-mail that will go to your list is as easy as filling out a few fields.

Sticky. It’s all about sticky. Bring those readers back to your site, to your blog, to your business. And, keep them coming back on a regular basis. Before you know, you have a solid, regular reader base and a more successful website.

I suppose I have to admit that I am getting a little older. Inside my head, I still feel like I am the same age was when I graduated from high school. In reality, I am hearing from friends about how our 20 YEAR high school reunion is being planner for the end of this summer.

Egads.

Do people say egads anymore?

I flew up to the DC ‘burbs for my 10 year reunion and I actually had a great time. I think I will skip the 20 year, though. In the meantime, I have a renewed desire to check up on old friends. I have lots of friends who still live up in the DC area and they are able to fill me in on the pans and what people are up whom still live in the area.

I have also been e-mailing other friends far and wide. We are spread out all over the U.S., and even the world. Sometimes it takes talking to ten people to get the scoop on everyone who matters. I say everyone who matter and not everyone, because our graduating class had 675 people in it and I have to admit that even though I had been in school with some of them since kindergarten, I do not remember everyone who graduated with me.

Have any of you passed your 20 year reunion? Did you go? Should I go? My life is so different right now and just taking off for a long weekend in DC is easier said than done. Maybe staying home and thanking God that I have only ever found one grey hair so far is enough of a celebration for me.

I had a dream last night in and it I was driving down the road and I passed a gas station where the regular gas cost $4.50 a gallon.

I’m not sure that is really only a dream. I could indeed happen.

Here is Florida Gov. Charlie Crist may introduce a proposal that suspend or reduce state gas taxes. He wants the cut, but admits that he has to look at the numbers carefully, since the state has such a tight budget currently.

Right now Florida has a 15.6 cent per gallon gas tax.

Crist’s suggestion on Wednesday came the day after Republican Presidential candidate John McCain suggested a suspension of national gas taxes during the summer. The federal tax, which is on top of the state tax, is 18.4 cents.

Currently, gas in Florida averages $3.42 in Florida, compared to $2.91 a year ago.

Many lawmakers in Florida did express the concern that the full tax savings would actually be passed on to consumers.

While I would look forward to a break that might make me feel as though I could afford more summer road trios, I still want to know what the United States is selling Alaska’s oil to Japan when we obviously need it right here at home.

And, if you really take a look at the breakdown of oil prices, $30 -$40 is added to each barrel due to commodities trading. Talk to the fat cats sitting at home smoking off the oil profits with their Cuban cigars.

Apples in Florida are not like the apples that grow in the north. I was born and raised in Virginia, so apples were part of the landscape there. I missed seeing apples blossoms and apple trees once I moved to Florida.

When I was living in Gainesville, I bought some trees that had been cultivated from Israeli varieties – the “Anna” and “Dorsett Golden”. I bought several trees of each, since they need one another for cross pollination.

I never did put them in the ground, because shortly after I bought them, I found out my then husband was probably being transferred back to Tampa. They came back to the Tamp area with us in the move.

Now I have them in very large pots on the back patio and they are doing so well, despite the fact that most people say they need to be further north in the state to do well. At almost all times throughout the year, we have trees in different stages of production. Right now we have some apples with nothing but buds, some with lovely pink blossoms, and some with ripening apples.

I took a photo of some of the apples. They are growing in droves, but they are small – barely 2 inches across. That is just the nature of these particular varieties.

The apples in the pictures are the “Anna” variety, I think. They are green with a red blush, so I am pretty sure that is what they are.

Not too many things go missing for very long in this day and age. Or, if they do it is because someone has made considerable efforts to side-step technology.

I use a GPS system in my car for navigation purposes, but I am fascinated by the myriad of uses GPS tracking that are absolutely useful for everyday life. Until last year, I had a greyhound that, despite the reputation for greyhounds not being all that bright, used to find new ways almost every day to get out of our yard and go for runs around the neighborhood. Sometimes she found her way out of the neighborhood, though, because greyhounds are not known for their prowess of finding their own way home. If I could go back in time and set up a simple GPS tracking system for that dog, I could have saved myself countless frantic drives around town.

(The greyhound is now living with a family who has a huge farm and lots of room for her to run, so she rarely feels the need to wander anymore.)

A more likely use for GPS tracking in my own life will come the day my daughter is old enough to drive. I am a single mom of a child who pushes the envelope on a daily basis. The kid has a nose for trouble, despite her loving heart. A car tracking device is something that I know will be a great investment for my peace of mind.

RMTracking.com (RMT) has all manner of GPS tracking systems. They are commonly used for corporate felt vehicles, as a way to track expensive equipment in case of theft, and (lucky for me) an affordable and non-invasive way to track your teen. The tracking devices can be ordered to operate in real-time, or in a more passive way where you can just download and view the data at a later date.

I have not check into the Florida laws yet, but in some states you can even get a discount on your teen’s auto insurance when you install a tracking device. How cool is that?

I think that as long as you maintain open communication with your child, the use of a tracking device can still be part of a trusting relationship. In the end, it is in the best of interest of a teen when their car can be located in the event of an accident or theft.

The latest flack in the McCain campaign surrounds a handful of family recipes that were placed on the John McCain campaign site and attributes to Cindy McCain.

Yesterday, the recipes were removed from the website. It seems that some members of the blogging community noticed that some of the “McCain Family Recipes” were identical to recipes on the Food Network website.

Of course, it would have been much more impressive had all of the recipes on the McCain website genuinely been recipes that had been passed down through the family for generations. Or, perhaps recipes that Cindy developed over her years as McCain’s wife.

It seems a tad picky, though, to let this get to you. How many of us find a great recipe online, give it a try, and add it to our own collection? This is how the majority of us accumulate recipes, rather than developing them all on our own.

It was a clumsy move, but ultimately forgivable.

It is astounding to me how much of a difference two days makes in the lives of the Mockingbird babies that in the nest outside my front door.

If you read my previous post about the mockingbirds, you will remember that there were four, but one of the babies slipped out of the nest due to wind tilting the nest. He died as a result. I put on gloves and carefully removed him, buried him, and then noticed that once the dead baby was gone from the nest, the parents resumed feeding the remaining three. I suppose the dead bird in the next had been upsetting them, because they had stopped feeding the chicks.

Anyway, this picture as taken today and you can tell how much more developed the feathers are. Also, instead of just asking to be fed when I came bear the nest, this time the chicks squawked unhappily at me. I’ll have to back off from now on.

It is a blessing to have the birds right outside the front door. This front row seat to God’s springtime nature broadcast is just amazing.

Most of us are already familiar with the national Do Not Call registry. You can sign your phone numbers up for inclusion on a list that bars solicitors from calling your home.

Now consumer groups are asking the Federal Trade Commission to create a “do not track list”. The list would be an attempt to advertisers from collecting information about you. They have also asked the FCC to ban the collection of health and other sensitive information by companies who do business online; that is, unless you expressly consent.
Of course, advertisers are against the creation of a do not track list. They would rather self regulate. We all know how well self regulating does in the business place – she said snidely.
Other advocacy groups are also trying to urge the legislation of information collected about individuals who are under the age of 18.

I’m all for a Do Not Track list. Consumers should have the absolute right to stop the collection of information from their computer, while still retaining the right to use the internet.

We have a pair of mocking birds that built a nest right outside my front door, in two potted ficus trees that happened to tangle together near their leafy tops. They were such a joy to watch as they built the nest. Somewhere, they found fluffy cotton and old Christmas tinsel. I also laid some cotton batting out for them to use; I was flattered when they took me up on my offering.

They laid their eggs and soon thereafter four little babies began tweeting. Mommy and Daddy having been working tirelessly to feed them. And, as the days pass the entire little bird family has become more and more comfortable with our presence. The adult birds no longer take off when we come in and out the front door. And, they no longer squawk at me when I am out working in the flowerbed.

They have even been OK with me taking pictures.

Here are pictures of the four babies yesterday. I agree with my daughter that their open mouths look like exotic flowers.

Last night we had an unusually cold night and very stiff winds. I went out to check the nest this morning and found it very titled. I also found one of the four babies had slipped out and its neck had become caught in between two little branches. It was dead. I felt quite saddened.

Evn more alarming was that the adult birds seemed to be avoiding the next while it had a dead baby in it. So, I put on gloves and got a long stick. I carefully moved around the branches until the baby fell into my hand. The, I dug a hole in one of my flower beds and gave him a little burial.

I wrnt back and did my best to jiggle things around to right the nest. As soon as I was finished, the adults came back and began feeding the remaining three babies

I’m honred to be able to watch all of this so close. And, even though the death of the 4th baby was heart breaking, it gives me a personal look at nature.

My mom and I were talking about my aunt Elaine, mom’s sister, today. We were lovingly joking about how much Elaine loved zucchini and how she would go into full zucchini mode when her garden came into season. She would make zucchini bread and zucchini relish and a host of other zucchini recipes.

Elaine died in 1994, at the age of 45, from leukemia. I miss her.

In her memory, please enjoy her infamous zucchini relish recipe.

10 cups zucchini
4 cups onion
1 or 2 green or sweet red peppers
3 Tablespoons salt
4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 1/2 cups vinegar
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons celery seed
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon turmeric

Grind zucchini, onions, and peppers. Add salt and let stand overnight.

Drain the veggies the following morning. Dissolve cornstarch in the vinegar and add spices, veggies, and other ingredients.

Boil 3 minutes.

Pack hot mixture into hot, sterilized jars and seal. Process in a water bath per canning instructions.

This will also keep in the refrigerator for a few weeks unprocessed.