A friend said something recently that got me thinking about funny things my dad does. He’s a big tree fanatic, and I mean big. In 1976 he and my mother planted one thousand blue spruce seedlings. Sadly 500 of them got mowed under by a farmer who was, uhhhh, not completely sober. The other half of them grew pretty well, and Dad went on to plant many more trees on the property. Today my parents’ home is completely surrounded by many many beautiful trees. Dad is still always on the lookout for a new tree.

One thing he does that makes me giggle is to stalk oak trees for their acorns. If he thinks one is particularly beautiful he’ll try to pick up some acorns to start his own.

I think it was before Hubby and I were married that Dad took us out at dusk on Mission Acorn. He’d found a tree along the road near some stores that he liked, so we went with him to catch his prey. It was a riot.

This of course got me thinking about funny Mom memories. It’s hard to pick my most favorite, but one that came to mind is a car trip late at night after going to see a possible horse for my sister. The horse’s name was Son Ada, which reminded us of the word sonata, part of a symphony. Then we got to talking about that play on words, when someone mentioned that a sonata is made up of three parts called sonatinas so we could name her baby Sonatina. At which point one of us said “well, she’d have to have triplets” and that struck us so funny that Mom almost had to pull over the car to finish laughing.

I know. You had to be there. It was hysterical to us, and I’m smiling about it right now as I type, even though it probably doesn’t seem very funny to you. Trust me. It was at the time.

So what are some great memories from your own childhood that make you smile?  And do you have funny family moments that you can laugh over with your own children? 

Earnest Parenting: help for family relationships.

Photo courtesy of Caz Harrizon, via Creative Commons license, some rights reserved.