Lori's TidBits

Useful and Useless Bits of Information

1. Quiet Time is the key to my sanity as a mother of four little ones. Each day, right after lunch clean-up, the children lay down for Quiet Time which lasts at least an hour. The 2yo naps, the 5yo naps or reads quietly, the 8yo finishes schoolwork or reads in her room, and the 10yo finishes schoolwork or reads in his room. If Daddy is home, he gladly naps, too. I spend my quiet time reading or writing. I have a rule that I cannot do chores during quiet time.

Quiet Time is not only good for me, but also for the children. They are more rested for the long day and less irritable and tired (they are the most healthy kids I know, and I think this lack of exhaustion is part of the reason. The other reason is the sheer number of germs we probably innoculate ourselves with daily, but that's a confession I didn't plan to make in this blog). Our 10yo looks forward to Quiet Time so he can have a break from his 5yo brother bothering him!


2. When your Child is fake-crying, and you know it is not a serious cry,calmly say, "Go to your room, close the door, and cry. When you're done, you can come out again." Our 5-year-old, angel though he is, pulls fake cries on us often. When I say, "Go to your room to cry," he often stops in mid-cry, wipes his eyes, and continues playing. See? He didn't need to be crying after all. Even our 2-year-old is being sent to her room to cry. She comes out within seconds, happy once again.

3. Moving a nest of eggs that a hen is setting on: You may not need to know this, but I have needed to know it twice. If you need to move a nest of eggs that a hen is setting on, she will follow those eggs to the new location, and she will not reject them.

4. If you need to catch a hen, it's easiest to do it when she goes to bed just before sunset. She'll perch in a tree or up on her perch, and it is easy to catch her then. But if she perches too high for you to reach, don't try to catch her with a broomstick or she's likely to fly out of the tree and not come near you again for 2 days (I know this to be true).

3. Running your sprinklers for 1 hour equals about 1" of rain. Your garden needs 1" of rain per week to thrive (in the hot summer, in very hot areas like the Deep South and SouthWest, it may need 1" every three days).

If you have not had enough rain in a week, water your garden or lawn for one hour. If you have had some rain, water your garden for less.

To check your rainfall amount for the week, use an empty tuna can for a rain gauge. Sink the tuna can into the dirt. If the can is full, you've had 1" of rain.

4. How to water your garden: Your garden will do best if it has the 1" of rainfall all at once rather than slowly. If you sprinkle your lawn daily for only 5 minutes each time, you are encouraging short roots that want to stay at the water level. Short roots = weak plants. By sprinkling the lawn or garden for one hour at once, you encourage the roots to stay at a deeper level.



by Lori Seaborg