132) The Triplets
Ben, David and Joanne
Through our church we met a young woman, Leanne who was separated from her husband. She is the mother of triplets. They are a delightful trio called Benjamin, David and Joanne. The first time I met her we were at some evening function or other and I noticed the problems Leanne had getting three sleepy children into the car to go home. I had always found that a hard job with only two kids and a husband to help me so felt very sorry for her. We discovered that Leanne and the triplets, who were about five at the time, lived just around the corner from us and so we visited them now and again and offered to lend a hand when we could.
The children would sometime come for the afternoon and were great fun even if a little exhausting. They would bring their bicycles and ride round and round outside the house as fast as their little legs could pedal them. They liked to tie their jumpers around their necks by the sleeves and ride fast enough to make the jumpers fly out behind them like “batman cloaks”. They liked to hold long sticks out in front of them, to represent lances, I think. They would come speeding around the corner in a clockwise direction, head down, going hell for leather and crash into another triplet doing exactly the same in an anti-clockwise direction. It did not take us long to realise that if we wanted to avoid serious injuries some rules had to be laid down. We put it to the vote and it was agreed that the only direction they could ride was clockwise. We tried to enforce some sort of speed restriction, this was impossible to do, but the “lances” had to go. Once they got the idea they were very good about it, Jonny and I weren’t so sure about it though. Have you ever sat in your house with three batman bicycle riders going round and round and round? Jonny said that it reminded him of the old Cowboy and Indian movies. You know, the ones where the stagecoach had been ambushed by a marauding Indian war party, the coach driver has been killed, the horses are galloping out of control and they are running short of ammunition. In the films the cavalry always arrived in time to save them and luckily Leanne would arrived to collect them before the triplets got our scalps. We named them the Apaches.
David had a wheat intollerence so could not eat the biscuits or cakes that I normally made. I started looking for gluten free recipes and made some rather horrid things out of rice or potato flour but David was always pleased with them. It made me realise how much we use wheat and how hard it is for mothers of wheat intolerant children. It is so easy to give children a sandwich for their lunch but now I had to put a bit of thought into what I would feed the children when they were with us. I did not want to make David feel odd so had to feed all three of them the same thing, but also serve something that they would all find tasty and filling. I am very grateful that I had not had this problem with my children. David was very good about it and would always ask “Can I eat this?” before eating anything anyone gave him, this made the gluten problem easier to handle.
Another thing they liked to do was collect pecan and macadamia nuts from the trees in our garden. David was very good at finding them and he would always say “I’ll find them, because I’m a good looker” and he was, in both meanings of the word. Once they had a nice pile they wanted to break them and eat them of course. The pecan nuts weren’t too bad but Macadamia nuts are very hard to break. Jonny would lend them a large pair of pliers from his workshop and then the fun would begin. I would lay out newspaper for them and they would take it in turns to use the pliers. David usually had the biggest pile of nuts, (he was the good looker) but he found it hard to actually crack them. Ben always felt that he was entitled to any nut that he cracked. Joanne was neither very good at finding or cracking but usually got the most as her brothers both spoilt her. Trying to sort out whose nuts were whose was a hard task. If I shared them out before they were cracked and some turned out to be bad it could cause arguments. If when Ben helped David to crack one he broke the kernel as well as the shell that could cause tears as well. We would end up with the broken shells all over the place and very little nut to eat. I used to buy packets of pre-shelled nuts for them but they never liked them as much as the ones they had collected and shelled themselves.
They were good kids and great fun. It was good to have met them and been part of their lives for a little while.
The children would sometime come for the afternoon and were great fun even if a little exhausting. They would bring their bicycles and ride round and round outside the house as fast as their little legs could pedal them. They liked to tie their jumpers around their necks by the sleeves and ride fast enough to make the jumpers fly out behind them like “batman cloaks”. They liked to hold long sticks out in front of them, to represent lances, I think. They would come speeding around the corner in a clockwise direction, head down, going hell for leather and crash into another triplet doing exactly the same in an anti-clockwise direction. It did not take us long to realise that if we wanted to avoid serious injuries some rules had to be laid down. We put it to the vote and it was agreed that the only direction they could ride was clockwise. We tried to enforce some sort of speed restriction, this was impossible to do, but the “lances” had to go. Once they got the idea they were very good about it, Jonny and I weren’t so sure about it though. Have you ever sat in your house with three batman bicycle riders going round and round and round? Jonny said that it reminded him of the old Cowboy and Indian movies. You know, the ones where the stagecoach had been ambushed by a marauding Indian war party, the coach driver has been killed, the horses are galloping out of control and they are running short of ammunition. In the films the cavalry always arrived in time to save them and luckily Leanne would arrived to collect them before the triplets got our scalps. We named them the Apaches.
David had a wheat intollerence so could not eat the biscuits or cakes that I normally made. I started looking for gluten free recipes and made some rather horrid things out of rice or potato flour but David was always pleased with them. It made me realise how much we use wheat and how hard it is for mothers of wheat intolerant children. It is so easy to give children a sandwich for their lunch but now I had to put a bit of thought into what I would feed the children when they were with us. I did not want to make David feel odd so had to feed all three of them the same thing, but also serve something that they would all find tasty and filling. I am very grateful that I had not had this problem with my children. David was very good about it and would always ask “Can I eat this?” before eating anything anyone gave him, this made the gluten problem easier to handle.
Another thing they liked to do was collect pecan and macadamia nuts from the trees in our garden. David was very good at finding them and he would always say “I’ll find them, because I’m a good looker” and he was, in both meanings of the word. Once they had a nice pile they wanted to break them and eat them of course. The pecan nuts weren’t too bad but Macadamia nuts are very hard to break. Jonny would lend them a large pair of pliers from his workshop and then the fun would begin. I would lay out newspaper for them and they would take it in turns to use the pliers. David usually had the biggest pile of nuts, (he was the good looker) but he found it hard to actually crack them. Ben always felt that he was entitled to any nut that he cracked. Joanne was neither very good at finding or cracking but usually got the most as her brothers both spoilt her. Trying to sort out whose nuts were whose was a hard task. If I shared them out before they were cracked and some turned out to be bad it could cause arguments. If when Ben helped David to crack one he broke the kernel as well as the shell that could cause tears as well. We would end up with the broken shells all over the place and very little nut to eat. I used to buy packets of pre-shelled nuts for them but they never liked them as much as the ones they had collected and shelled themselves.
They were good kids and great fun. It was good to have met them and been part of their lives for a little while.
The Triplets on a Trailer
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