I know that technically Vikings were a subset of pirates, a sect of them, if you will. I also know that if a ship load of my type of pirates (the Caribbean sort) ever had stumbled upon a ship full of Vikings, that an all-out, fierce, sea-faring battle would have ensued.
However, here at The Pirate Mom Dot Com, I want you to know that I *HEART* Vikings!
Big ones…
Little ones…
And even the goofy ones…
It’s just what I do.
….you could just watch this instead.
But, of course, it just isn’t the Peanuts without Snoopy, so here ya’ go…
Ummm…okay….I realize that one is going to require a bit of imagination. Just work with me here…
I hope you’ve had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I hope that you’re full. I hope that you’re warm. I hope that you are surrounded by your loved ones. I hope that someone else washed the dishes. I hope that there are only 5 calories in your second third piece of pumpkin pie. And most of all, I hope that you know the peace and comfort that comes from knowing the Savior.
Over the weekend, I bought this coat for Dirty Harry….
Old Navy was having their outerwear sale, and all of their coats and jackets were 50% off. Despite the fact that it was an unseasonable 74 degrees here on Saturday, I knew that he had outgrown one coat and broke the zipper on another, so he was in need of a warm coat. The jacket that he picked out was normally $69.50. I also bought Bonny Annie a bubble vest that she has been eyeing. So, I only paid half-price for both, but then I also had a 15% off-your-entire-purchase coupon, so I only REALLY paid around $50 for both items. Cha-ching!
But do you know what’s even better? Dirty Harry’s coat is doubling for a house robe on chilly mornings after he’s not had enough sense to wear any clothes to bed.
Something about those pictures remind me of the ads for Abercrombie….without the well-defined and oiled pectoral muscles.
(Hi….it’s the Pirate Mom here. As you know, if you regularly read this blog, our baby, Cap’n Jack Henry, had minor surgery a couple of days ago to repair an inguinal hernia. I woke up at 1:50am that morning to feed him, and I was unable to go back to sleep. Needless to say, I was a space cadet for most of the day. Big D’s camera weighs more and is more bulky than Jack Henry himself, so he didn’t want to lug it to the hospital. So I ended up asking Dirty Harry to take some pictures of the going-ons of that day, and he’s here to help me blog about the experience. Here’s what happened in Dirty Harry’s words….)
We got up at about 5:30am, and we left the house around 6:15am. This is what Jack Henry looked like on the way to his surgery. I know he looks a little like a gangster, but he really isn’t. He’s just a baby. He laughed and talked the whole way to the hospital, which was about 45 minutes. Obviously he didn’t know about his surgery.
This is the waiting room. He was starting to get fussy when we got in there. I think it was because he was hungry and tired. Did I mention he hadn’t had milk since 2am or food since 8pm the night before? I think I would be fussy too. He didn’t have to wait too long to get called back, but me, my sister and grandma had a looooooooooong wait.
Although the wait didn’t seem too long because there were video games in the waiting area. I was addicted to the basketball one. Indiana Mimi was a decent player too.
After a while, my mom and dad came back out. This meant that Jack Henry was in surgery now. My dad took this picture of himself. That’s why it’s upside-down. Mom took us to the cafeteria for a snack. When she had to go upstairs again, me, Sis and Mimi went to go look at the trains. I showed them the way because I knew where they were from when we were there for Jack Henry’s MRI. They had no idea where they were going and would have been lost without me.
When we got back we found out that Jack Henry was out of surgery, and the doctor found his ball. My dad said it was the prodigal ball, sort of like the prodigal son of the Bible who was gone but then came home. We had to wait a little longer, and then my mom brought out Jack Henry.
I took this picture of him when he first came out. He was crying, but later he stopped, and he slept the whole way home.
He doesn’t look like a gangster anymore, does he? Just a tired little baby.
I’m glad things went well for Jack Henry and that he got to be fed later that day. I’m also glad he got his ball back because if he didn’t my dad was going to call him Uno for the rest of his life.
The End
(Thanks Dirty Harry for filling in. I learned some things from your post. I had no idea that Indiana Mimi could play basketball.)
And on another note, please pray for Cap’n Jack Henry today. He’s having inguinal hernia surgery later this morning.
Even though for unknown reasons, he likes to torture me in the wee morning hours, I’m hoping everything goes smoothly and that he’ll….well, ummm….ahem…get his….oh boy….*cough, cough*…testicle back. There…I said it. Thanks.
Welcome to Flashback Friday!
Back in October of 2000, Dirty Harry was five months old. For Halloween that year I bought him the cutest, sweetest and hottest lion costume on the planet. He absolutely hated it and swore that he’d never keep his room clean a day in his life for revenge on me. And he has kept his word. Oh people, has he kept his word!
Over the summer, when we were visiting Charleston, my sister Debbles pulled some Rubbermaid tubs full of boy clothes from her attic for me to look through. Guess what I found? Yep! The dreaded lion costume!
Everyone says that the Cap’n and Dirty Harry look alike, and that is true. However, there are some differences here. First of all, Jack Henry is wearing the suit as an eleven month old, and while he has been accused of having a large head, it is apparently not as large as his brother’s at five months old because his face had a lot more room. Secondly, once he got it on, Jack Henry actually liked being a lion. Of course, that may have to do with the fact that it was in the 40s the day he wore it, rather than in the 80s when Harrison wore it. All in all, I think this means that Jack Henry will always have a clean room, and don’t try to tell me otherwise.
Last Saturday we went to the annual Harvest Festival and Trunk-or-Treat at Regg’s farm. This is Regg.
He’s Big D’s boss, and he’s giving us a hay ride.
Here’s the crew….
And no, I don’t know what Dirty Harry is doing with his face. Perhaps the sight of the lion costume has triggered some long-buried negative emotions. Or maybe he is lamenting that he is dressed as a Titan and they are now 0-6. Or perhaps he’s just being goofy. It’s hard to tell with that one.
Oh, alright….even though I loathe this picture, here’s one of me…
(Psst…Susan, can you see that Annaleigh is wearing her vest and gloves? She looked so cute in them!)
We even took the little lion to the petting zoo. Here’s he’s thinking, “Mmmmm…chicken!”
Ahhh….memories! That suit is soooo cute that it makes me want to have another one to dress up.
Don’t hold your breath though. I’m lion…er, I mean lyin’!
“You know, Mom,” Dirty Harry began the other day, “I think Jack Henry would have probably survived the Starving Time at Jamestown.”
“Really? Why is that?” I was expecting him to say that he thought his baby brother was going to grow up to be extra strong or brave or smart or something.
“Because he would have been one of the first ones to eat his leather shoes. It would have probably been his idea. He probably would have even liked it.”
I think he has a valid point…
At least Dirty Harry is listening to his history lessons.
I’m glad Dirty Harry has a brother. He needed a brother.
Cap’n Jack Henry is someone he can laugh with…
…share secrets with…
…play with…
…make monkey faces with…
Now, my only question is, does she…
…need a sister?
Naaaaaahhhhhh!
My secret is out: I can’t spell Pocahontas. I have to look at it every single time. It’s ridiculous. And time-consuming.
For history this year, we’ve started a two-year journey on American history. So the past several weeks have been filled with stories of Native Americans, conquistadors, and Christopher Columbus. Harrison was assigned to read the Clyde Robert Bulla book, Pocahontas and the Strangers. I think it would have taken me about six years to write a book about that chick because I would have had to look up her name 649 times. It may take me two hours just to get through this blog post unless I just continue to call her things like chick or girly or young Indian woman….all of which I know how to spell.
Anyhoo, for the kids’ literature selections this year, I am having them complete some sort of project for each book they read, and for this one I found a whole mess of lapbook activities (link shared below), so he’s been gradually putting one together. We learned a lot….even things that weren’t included in the book. Except for how to spell her name. I will never get that one down.
Dirty Harry decorated the cover with a coloring page depiction of the girl in which we were studying and the correct spelling of her name, executed quite colorfully on the border. Did you know that Little P was not actually the buxom, leggy creature of Disney’s imagination? And did you know that there was actually no romance between herself and John Smith? And did you know that she didn’t actually have conversations with a talking tree?
On the inside left flap we attached two mini books. One covered medicine men in general and their functions in Native American tribes. The other focused on how our heroine and her tribe helped Jamestown.
Above shows a pocket where he included character cards. On the back of the index card, Harrison wrote some facts about each person. For example, on our girl’scard, he explains how she eventually goes to England and commits all kinds of fashion faux pas, and how they change her name to Rebecca because they don’t know how to spell that other name either.
The above tri-fold booklet nearly caused a breakdown one afternoon because Harrison thought it was too detailed to color. He was relieved though that he could answer the questions about her wedding in just a few words.
We included another little mini book on how she saved John Smith’s life. Now there’s someone with a nice, sensible, easy-to-spell name!
Then at the bottom, we placed two matchbook style books on her childhood and the roles of Native American women in general.
On the side flap, we attached the story of our Indian maiden’s kidnapping. At least Dirty Harry got the spelling right.
On the back, we have a map showing home girl’s travels to England and a chart where Harrison compared his religious beliefs to those of Native Americans. Did you know that P-Dawg (I watch waaaaay too much American Idol.) eventually became a Christian?
All in all, it was a fun and informative project! And here is a link to most of the resources that we used to complete the book: http://www.homeschoolshare.com/pocahontas.php The activities were actually based on the d’Aulaire book about you-know-who, but we were able to adapt the ones we wanted to use very easily.
The following is based on a true story….
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, a home schooling pirate mom woke up to her dining room table looking like this….
She was a nice, neat pirate, who liked order and cleanliness. She was an unusual pirate.
Innocently, she called her pirate children down for a day of school and said, “Today, children, we are going to decorate covers for our notebooks.”
So that’s what the children did. Her children, however, were ordinary pirates who enjoyed mess, mayhem and gore.
When they were finished, the pirate mom’s table looked like this…
…and the pirate mom screamed, and cried, and gnashed her teeth, and said, “Now we have to go eat dinner at Cracker Barrel because we can’t see the top of our table.”
The End.
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