Good deeds

Picking up glitter... Glitter, litter with a g to dress it up. My kids thoroughly enjoy picking it up so it is quite appropriate that we call it glitter. Picking up glitter is something we do very often. Every trip to the store starts with each child picking up at least one piece of trash and depositing it in the garbage can. I must be especially diligent lest they pick up something particularly disgusting. Receipts and bags - OK. Anything wet - ewwwwww! I introduced the idea that a clean Earth is a better Earth. John started the clean up tradition when he was a wee one (about 1 year old) visiting the park.
Recently my dad treated the kids and me to a ferry ride. Katie noticed the trash floating around in the water and gave us all (strangers included) a lesson about how the fish and ducks cannot live with those things in the water. Oh how I wish I had jotted down a few of her quotes!
My do-gooders request help saving frogs daily here. The frog mommies lay eggs in the decorative pond. We watch them morph from egg to tadpole to tadpole with legs to tiny frog. Those tiny frogs (and a few big ones plus a few crabs) sometimes find their way into the salt water swimming pool. That is when Operation Frog kicks in. We do daily pool checks, fish out the little buggers and release them into the grass. Katie and Allison are quite certain that the large croaking frogs are the mommy frogs saying Thank You! for saving the babies. :)
Saving the frogs isn't our only mission. We are all quite diligent about making sure no children end up in one of the many water hazards near here. All of the kids wear bracelets that alarm when they get wet. The bracelets are particularly sensitive. Claire licking one or Allison sweating on one while she naps will set off the alarm. Because of that sensitivity we have many water hazard drills. They are paying off! Today just Katie and I were home while Claire napped in her crib. Katie sat at the kitchen table doing a craft while I walked down the driveway to check the mail. Halfway up the drive I heard the pool alarm sound. My first thought was - Yikes! Katie freaks out when any alarm goes off. I ran into the house and instantly noticed Katie... Fingers in her ears, standing at the back window, scanning the pool. She caught sight of me, ran over (fingers still in ears) and announced Mommy, there are NO kids in the pool! I was so proud of her for reacting quickly and safely. Together we went outside to take a walk around the pool check for frogs...