"My Crazy Kids"

Thankful For Family By Allan Olson published 11-24-10 Cass Lake Times Eat until I can’t eat anymore is the plan for me this Thursday. This is likely the case for many others as well. The food that will be prepared is just one of many things to be thankful for this week. I can honestly say I’m thankful for a lot of things in my life. I’m especially thankful for my beautiful little family. Do I always feel overwhelmed with joy while dealing with the everyday tasks of working and raising four children? I would be lying if I said yes. My children are great kids. They are great at making me smile with their questions and antics. However, they are also great at driving me up a wall. Asking them to help clean a room sometimes and it’s like you put them in a torture chamber by daring to ask for a little help cleaning up the mess they made. Other times they are willing, eager partners ready to help with whatever task you need them to. Of course, there are also those times when ...

Going on a hunting walk By Allan Olson 11.17.10 CLT It seems that all I’ve done this year during hunting season is walk. I walk to the deer stand, walk to track deer when another hunter’s aim hasn’t been true ... by the end of the day I’m tired from all the walking. Last weekend I came in from walking and I asked my oldest daughter Abigail if she wanted to go on a “Hunting Walk,” with me. Of course the answer was “yes” – a very enthusiastic “yes.” “I’m going hunting with daddy,” she said. So I started getting her stuff together. I found her boots, gloves, snowpants and hat. Everything needed to keep her little body warm. “This is my rainbow hat,” she said after I put her winter hat on her little head. I then proceeded to cover her outdoor clothes with a three-sizes-too-big orange jacket and covered her rainbow hat with an orange hat. On the way down the deck ramp of my parent’s house, she grabbed an empty five quart ice cream pail to bring with her. As we walked acros...

Hunting with a Seven-Year-Old By Allan Olson The annual deer hunting holiday is here, and many hunters are enjoying the warm weather and hopefully, bagging a deer or two. The weather was perfect – at least for a nap. I certainly enjoyed one or two while I was sunbathing in the unusually warm November sun. The forecast for this week is a little cooler, so I knew that I better take my oldest boy out to the stand while it was still warm. I figured he could handle being in a stand for three hours. Perhaps that might have been a stretch. After lunch on Sunday, I asked him if he wanted to go out hunting with me. “Yes,” Nikolai said eagerly. Okay, then I proceeded to round up the clothes that he would need. I gathered together extra socks, boots, snowsuit, orange hat and jacket, and a bucket to sit on. Then we headed down the road to a deer stand. “We’re walking there?” he asked. “Yes,” I said, “it’s less than a mile down the road.” As we head to the stand, he’s walking all over the ...

I Wanna’ Help Published 11-3-10 CLT By Allan Olson It’s great to have help on projects around the house. Whether it’s laundry, baking, cleaning or just wrangling four active children, it’s always nice to have help. Except when it’s not, because sometimes, it isn’t. The kind of help I’m referring to is from the hands of a little child. Hearing those words from the little voice of a young child for the first time will make most parents smile and think how cute it is that they want to help. Well, I’ve had “help” for the last seven years, and it’s not always very helpful. A couple weekends ago, I made cinnamon rolls. As the bread was raising, the kids went down for a nap. But all were concerned that they wouldn’t be able to help. “I want to make rolls,” Marcus said in sobs as he was heading to bed. “Don’t worry,” I said, “I’ll make sure you get to help.” I had 15 loaves to roll out, and it wasn’t going to be a quick task with eight extra hands helping. The loaves rose before the...