favorite thing friday

I'll bet you were thinking that I had dropped Favorite Thing Friday like a bad habit. But rest assured, I haven't. I've just had so many other things to discuss and since there is only so much time on any given day that I can unload my thoughts in to the computer, my list of favorite things has been pushed to the back of my desk and pulled out only when I need to jot down other things that our family thoroughly enjoys or that I've determined helps to make living easier.

Like dryer balls. They make living easier. They replace fabric softener sheets which it has been theorized, can cause adverse health effects. I like the dryer balls because they last a lot longer than fabric sheets and they seem more 'green' even though they're blue.

(But hey! That's a great marketing idea!! They should make them green!!)

Alas, the purpose of this post was not to write about eco-friendly dryer balls. Nor is it to poll everyone that has purchased a butter crock, how well that handy invention is working out for you. Is your butter soft and spreadable? Or has it been repeatedly falling out? Have you tried adding cold water to the crock?

Instead, I wanted to write about a tradition that we have in our house that dates back to the year Charlie and I were married. That year we were wed, the Year of our Lord 1994, my sister bought us a flag pole for Christmas. It was a simple wooden flag pole with the hardware to mount it directly to our home. She also bought us a Christmas flag, that had a brightly embroidered picture of Rudolph. Over the past 14 years, I have added to our flag collection. I have swapped out worn flags for new ones, and in the course of perusing a local flag store, now boast a collection of flags for most of the big holidays.

I have a birthday flag. And a New Years flag. A Valentine's Day flag, Saint Patrick's Day flag, Easter flag and Halloween flag. I have several varieties of Christmas flags. I have a Thanksgiving flag. In fact, this is the very flag we have flying outside our home at the moment. (Every time I look at it, I think people should be thankful that they aren't a turkey. Especially this time of year.)


I have an American flag that I hang up for Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Veteran's Day. I have a Boston Red Sox flag that I hang up whenever they are playing. (Or more appropriately, whenever I am watching.) And I have a random assortment of flags that I fly when we are outside of a particular holiday period, but within a season.

We've got flowers for spring, sailboats for summer, brightly colored leaves for fall and snowmen for winter. That last one is particularly fun to have up when it's January and the temperature is a sweltering 92 degrees.

The kids have almost as much fun changing out our flags as they have going to the flag store to pick out new ones. (If you don't have a flag store near you - you can peruse several companies that sell them online).

In addition to adding festive decoration to our home, I think that flags help the children to anticipate the holiday we are celebrating or the season that we are in. It also helps for them to understand the passage of time, in that holidays that we celebrate will end - but there is always another holiday just around the bend. And chances are - we have a flag for it. If not, we'll get one.

Currently, I'm looking for a white flag that I can hang up with the word POTTY and a strike through the middle of it. Because I am truly at that point of resigning myself that one of my children will never ever go poop on the potty. And honestly, I'm ready to die. In fact, I might already be dead and trapped in poop hell.

Do you have a visual of that??

Because that's pretty much what it's like around here.