For the Birds

Our neighbors son sits outside on his mother's back door steps every time he comes to visit her. He smokes his cigar which smells like vanilla and in the summer its scent fills even our air with its sweetness.

He is a very friendly man although I am ashamed to admit that I do not remember his name even though I am sure that we have introduced ourselves at one point or another.

He always says hello with a warm smile on his face and the girls enjoy talking with him when they are all out at the same time.

He taught them about rats last year. Our neighbors on the opposite side had them and they were going back and forth between our garages. He told the girls about the poison that he used to "get rid" of them and they were always eager to tell them when and if they saw another one scurrying about.

This last fall he showed them how he could hold a peanut (un-salted) in his hand and the chipmunks would run up to him and take them. When the weather warms up i'll be purchasing our own stash of peanuts in hopes to lure the chipmunks over to us too.

The girls and I used to feed our squirrels but Justin made us stop because they were living in a hole in our tree and continued to damage the tree. (We ended up cutting that exact tree down this last summer.) So when I brought up making bird feeders to Justin he wasn't overly excited. He said that we would just get more squirrels. For one reason or another he still approved and away we went.

It was a craft that I remembered doing when I was much younger and going to church activities with my grandmother. Around Christmas time the whole church would get together and make ornaments and cookies. We would sing and eat good food. It was wonderful and the memories have lasted. Our church that we belong to now does the same thing. Just another reason that I love it so much!

It's an easy craft to do.

Undoubtedly messy.

But fun to do!

And really..., it's fun to get your hands messy.

I hope that when the girls look back on their childhood that they will remember the times like this that we spent together. From this particular moment together I'll remember how Jasmine and Kiliegh licked the peanut butter off of the butter knife even after they spread it on the pine cones with the seeds still stuck to it... yuck!