He or She makes They.

Following the theme from last Friday, I thought I'd mention another quirk in my language.  In this case, actually, I just tend to be wrong.  Two things: a) singular/plural pronouns, and b) subject-verb agreement.

via.

Singular/Plural Pronouns.
I don't claim to be a grammarian, and by no means do I know all the writing rules, but I had always been told to make sure a sentence is consistent.  I listen for consistency.  I've noticed that many people, in an effort not to give away gender when being anonymous, replace the pronoun he/she with the singular they.  For example, "I know a person who once was in debt so much that they cut up all of their credit cards."

I didn't know it was a real thing, but there is a syntactical basis for it, as recorded in this generations online encyclopedia (Wikipedia).  It's correctness is debatable, but is recognizably used for indeterminate gender and indeterminate number.

From Wikipedia, an example of indeterminate number:

There's not a man I meet but doth salute me / As if I were their well-acquainted friend — Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors, Act IV, Scene 3 (1594)

and indeterminate gender:

"It can't be true what the girls at the Rectory said, that her mother was an opera-dancer—""A person can't help their birth," Rosalind replied with great liberality. — Thackeray, Vanity Fair (1848)

There's a slew of other examples.  My conclusions is that if it's good enough for Shakespeare, it's good enough for me.  I won't feel guilty about being indeterminate with my "they" anymore.

Subject-verb agreement.
  I have often gotten in trouble with my subject verb agreement when I write.  I remember as a kid my teacher would circle the verb, then draw an arrow back to the subject to indicate that they don't match.  This problem still lurks in my writings and conversations.  Particularly singular and plural verbs.

I write many emails each week, and often I use "is" with a plural subject.  Not quite as bad as "they is goin' out fer dinner," but pretty close.   Mostly "Here is my vacation plans," where plans is the subject (here and there are never subjects).   "Where is the salt and pepper?"  Gotcha!  "Salt and pepper" here is a combined unit.  But how about this one?  "Here is my email address and phone number."  I think I say it wrong.

Grammar Book guidelines.

Rule 6
As a general rule, use a plural verb with two or more subjects when they are connected by and.
Example:A car and a bike are my means of transportation.

Here's another ambiguation/disambiguiation, depending on how you look at it:

Rule 15
Collective nouns such as team and staff may be either singular or plural depending on their use in the sentence.

Examples:The staff is in a meeting.  Staff is acting as a unit here.  The staff are in disagreement about the findings.  The staff are acting as separate individuals in this example.  The sentence would read even better as:  The staff members are in disagreement about the findings. 

Most of the time, I think it's just that I slap my verb into the sentence before I really know what I'm going to say.  So I'll just have to keep my ears open and think before I speak, then occasionally getting annoyed at myself when I find an inconsistency.

Is Blake and Ian coming?

Well, is they?

Of course they IS!  (Better watch out!)  Deerfield, NH Fair, 2012

As of Late

Fall in New England is in full swing--it's our favorite time of year to spend together as a family. Here's what we've been up to over the last few weeks!

The Deerfield Fair

My latest quilt finish

(Thanks to Joe, as usual, for being my model)

Time to paint pumpkins!

Our first-born is ready to write Santa for two front teeth!

 A Saturday hike up Rag Rock

...and sometimes playing outside in the fall is fun...and sometimes it's not

The first day of school and Mitchell Family Fun Day

I have no idea why these pictures are in reverse order, but I'm too lazy to fix it.....So we'll just start from the most recent, shall we?

Ian started first grade on September 6th, and I don't know if ever there was a happier boy on the first day of first grade. We are THRILLED about his teacher and so excited that so many of his friends are in his class!

I thought it was nice that his cubby was the first one after the classroom door.

You can see Ian's lime-green backpack in line with the rest of his class.
Have I mentioned he was excited?

Blake had an awkward moment with the stroller, though.

This is Ian's first experience with his very own desk and special pencil just for him.

Day 1 of 181 walking to school with Dad, Blake,  Mr. Adam, and Jacob.
On the first day, the moms and sister, Catherine, joined along.

Oh, how we love neighbor Jacob!!
(Have I mentioned we won the neighbor lottery? Cause we did.)

New this year: The Back To School Fairy!
She came and left some fun treats for the WHOLE family to celebrate!

For the past decade+, we have been gathering each summer for Mitchell Family Fun Day! This mostly consists of eating grilled food and playing outdoor games. This year, we missed Aunt Becky's family by a couple of days

New this year: Ian spear-headed a family bike race. Notice he's barefoot. We changed that quickly.

The three-legged race was great--especially after Kelsey just picked up Ian and RAN. =)

Also? There were potato sacks.

Blake liked the Ride-On-Dad's-Ankle event post-badminton.

Ian and cousin Andrea are best buds.

Ian was.....addicted....to this whistle.

Blake wanted to play badminton....but only on Dad's hip.

Joe had a BLAST splitting wood for Grammy. I think he was feeling especially manly.
I mean, really. Splitting wood in MAINE? Hello, lumberjack!!

Blake loves Mom's chickens. He was so excited that he got to let them out of their coop and run. 

Ian and Papa had to dig the potatoes for that day's potato salad.
(Notice the chicken coming over for a peek.)

Ian's Half-Birthday, Blueberries, and Newport Polo

The catching up continues!

Last winter, we sat down with Ian to talk about his sixth birthday party....and we all lamented the fact that all of us winter-born folks know to be true: being a kid with a winter birthday means that you can't do all of the fun outside things that all of the summer-born kids can do. The solution? We'd have a HALF-birthday party for him in August.

But what was so much MORE exciting was that--thanks to co-scheduling with my cousin, Isaac's, temple endowment--we were able to have our favorite friends AND family (31 people!!) to celebrate! Ian's request was to play at a playground (we chose the AWESOME playground at the new elementary school in the neighborhood), and eat hot dogs and chips. (Two foods that we rarely--if ever--have). 

Again, as is our late-summer routine, I took the boys to pick blueberries (and picked up some peach seconds at the same time....mmmmmm). Ian was THRILLED to get his very own container this year, and Blake was less-than thrilled to NOT have his own. 

For the sixth year running, we made the summer trek down to Newport, Rhode Island to see the US Polo Team play. We usually go in June to the match against Scotland...but this year we wanted to go see the English team play--which happened to be the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. Oh, boy--what a difference a weekend makes. It was SOOOOOO crowded--more than 4,000 people were there. (Four-thousand people!!) We had a GREAT time, but we might go back to the June schedule next year. =)

Ian wanted me to make a "giant sandwich," and since sandwiches are basically my favorite thing in the world right now, I was happy to oblige. Blake couldn't get enough of his portion--it was hilarious watching him eat it.

One thing I love about polo is how it's sort of "yuppy tail-gating." The people next to us had a tablecloth, candles, and a cheese platter that they nursed during the whole match. My mouth was watering.

Ponies. Not horses. Ponies. Being a Non-Horse-Person, I didn't realize that these were the SMALL ones.

No one loves a halftime divot-stomp more than Ian...

...except maybe Blake.

Polo is fun for all ages!!!

See? TONS of people!

I love me some English polo post-game high-fives!