For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for November 23, 2009

Whappita-Whappita…. priceless! xD

Hey, they’re getting plenty of excersice.

Well at least all three of them will sleep well tonight!

I think the idea is that young children do need to burn off energy. If it is cold and rainy out they need to be in.. so quiet games all day is not always a good thing. When it snows, they can go out; not anywhere near as wet!

Happy children don’t make noise – they make MUSIC.

GEE1A it would be rare for a family in a “suburb of Toronto” - as the Patterson’s are - to be snowed in. They might get 8” of snow, but that’s not a big deal for someone with a shovel or snow blower … and they’d just go out and play in anything other then a blizzard.

I thought this house had a big basement…and being in Canada, it would be finished out. Thats where dogs and kids can play.

Oh Yeah! Their house it huge, big enough to chase the dog around in!

I wish everyone didn’t think Canada was the equivalent of the North Pole. In southern Ontario the winters are no worse than those in the northern US.

Yes banish the kids, dog and all that noise to the basement. Or give them exactly one half hour to burn off that energy and then make them sit down and do something quiet.

Sometimes you’ve just gotta give in. The house will survive. Granted, you don’t want to make it the new “normal”, but every once in a while is okay. They’ll remember these times, and still hopefully understand that you need to be respectful and orderly the rest of the time.

(Hey, OpenWings! Unless I’ve been remiss, it’s been a while…)

Exactly FishStix! Of course, I’m in Tucson and people think that you burst into flames in the summer. Not EVERY summer!

GEE1A… play hockey, of course!

I like it too, but I just knew Elly wouldn’t.

actually she does! she’s letting them play this time. as lightenup said above, sometimes you have to give in

rain never stopped us from playing baseball down in the field by the coal yards when i was a kid. we always had a blast, especially sliding into base.

With Thanksgiving approaching I wish everone a nice holiday. Kansas weather will be fairly nice in the 50’s. There are some who will not have turkey but here will will smoke a turkey with some hickory. For sweetpottatoes instead of marshmallow I will use a crumb topping with nuts.

Oberon12: AMEN!

It’s hard to tell who’s having more fun - Farley or the kids. Love his expression.

My two keeshonden (google it) LOVE this game in the house. So do we. We call it “PANTS ON FIRE!” and get out of the way until the little one runs into her crate to escape from the guy twice her size. Then we all collapse in pants and giggles.

Well lets see, you could start teaching them to clean, or maybe put on some music and everybody dance. Growing up an only child in Southern Ca. there weren’t alot of days we couldn’t go outside.

Hey lightenup! yes been away for two weeks, and if it wasn’t for you, I’d have believed nobody noticed… xD

…lol, jk ;o)

Wow, I’ve never experienced - degree weather. Plenty of 100+ though. Those arent fun.

So I googled keeshonden, and they are adorable, even the adults!

What’s this “snowed in in the winter”? If it snows, you go out and play in it. or shovel it off the walk. Toronto doesn’t get that much snow - not compared to Montreal, or Buffalo, or Moscow, or Leningrad (or, hey, what do they call it now?).

There was a story once about a town closing the schools because the temperature had gone down to 50 below zero - much too cold to go out. So as the teachers were going home, guess what they saw? Since all the schools were closed, the kids were out there playing in the snow!

North Bay is a “suburb of Toronto?” I’m only a West Coaster, but I didn’t think the suburbs extended 250 miles North! (Yet!)