I'm a survival guy, mom.

Survival. It's about doing what we have to do when times get tough.

Times got tough today when Mama was frustrated. You know, a little bit leftover Christmas Flu coupled with Back-To-Regular-School-Stuff-Schedule Flu...today I reached a bit of a breaking point. Its been a bit bi-polar here. Yesterday Iggy was so excited to start his Draw Squad class at a local community center...today Ooky was frustrated (read:tantrum) because he flat out didn't understand the "chemistry" we were attempting at our homeschooly 4H gathering this morning. (Chemistry, meaning identifying the difference between baking soda and powdered sugar and other white powdery substances while mixing them with vinegar.) This, coming from the child who can talk to anyone about anything...and apparently can't ask for guidance regarding his misunderstandings. Hmmm.

Anyhow, upon arriving home from our schooly outings, I had, well...had it. We bundled up and went outside. I didn't really know what we were going to do. We traipsed off into the woods. You can always find something to do in the woods. We watched a pilated woodpecker for at least forever while he banged his beak into our ropeswing tree. Iggy said something about the woodpecker not being able to control his head, and I got the giggles.

Then Iggy laid down in the snow and said "Mom, its like we're survival guys out here. We should build some shelter."

Now I don't know what came over me, maybe its the bit of indian in my blood, but gosh darnint, I agreed with the kid. Suddenly we are survivalists. And we need shelter.

So for the next hour, we gathered deadfall and constructed what Iggy and Ooky referred to as our "survival house". Iggy kept saying it would be easier with tools, and that real survival men would have a knife. I said "We have to work with what we have, my dear." And we did. The boys were quite proud of the house, and are sure that we will add many final touches on it tomorrow. Iggy pointed out that if we had deer hides, we could have wrapped them around the shell of the house and been quite warm and insulated. But, seeing as how we have no deer hides leftover, perhaps blankets or sheets will have to suffice.

The beauty of the survival house is that it entertained us for at least an hour...maybe more...and when we came inside, we were all happy and jovial again. And that's a gorgeous thing!

Yep, we're survival guys (gals). We make it work. We have to. What's the alternative?