Monthly Archives: February 2007

02.23.07
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Room with a View

Nutmeg tagged me to show off what I see when I blog. Here you go:

That’s Pete having a temper tantrum. And that’s frequently what I see when I sit down to the computer or have the audacity to want to take a few pictures.

This window is just to the left of my desk. I can blog while watching the kids play in our muddy backyard. I can look out and see birds munching on seeds in the feeder Fritz made and I nailed to the top of the fence. I can look over and see two dummy rounds for a tank. Yes, those are really big, but pretend, bullets for a tank. They’re for practice. The real ones cost a lot of money, so they give army guys fake ones that look and weigh just like the real ones, so they can practice throwing them into the gun. And I’ve got two of them in my den. Aren’t I lucky?
(Oh, do you notice the uneven curtain? That’s artistry. {ahem} It’s one of those scarf curtains that I could never get even and I had to tie up because the kids kept pulling on it. And so it stays.)

Last Sunday, Bill was at the Daytona 500. He had a seat in the pit. He got a lug nut as a souvenir – ooooh! He could have gotten a whole tire! He wisely declined. Here is another trophy he brought home years ago:

This is the spent casing from a real bullet that went through the gun of a real tank. His plan had been to polish it up and turn it into an umbrella stand. We are not umbrella people. Bill thinks it is unmanly to carry an umbrella (unless you are carrying it for someone else like your wife…then it’s chivalrous), and I prefer a hat myself since I generally have my arms full of kids. And if we did go out and buy an umbrella, it would likely be the collapsible kind that wouldn’t fit in this case. Maybe in 30 years, we can use it for our canes, but for now, it holds my broom. Had he brought home a tire from a NASCAR race, I would have planted flowers in it.

And here is my desk:

This secretary belonged to my husband’s grandfather. That spot in the middle is my inbin that I happened to clean up last week. It has a limited height capacity, which indicates to me when it is time to move my piles. This desk is my #1 Hot Spot (for you Flybabies). If my desk is clean, the rest of my house is usually pretty good too. Or I may have a clean home, but my computer is buried. The desk is my Final Dumping Ground. Even the kids dump stuff there, and that simply must stop.

Typical: the page-a-day calendar to the left is on January 19th. I feel a month behind too.

02.22.07
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Quote

Found in a diary I kept the summer I worked in Germany:

“Sie hatte das Brot des Lebens aufgezehrt bis auf den Letzten Brosamen.”

– Bertolt Brecht in Die Unwuerdige Greisin



She consumed the bread of life down to the last crumb.

02.22.07
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A pile of puzzles

My kids love puzzles. We have, I don’t know, two dozen, maybe 3 dozen puzzles? About a third of them are flat with the pieces fitting within the frame. About a third of them are 24 piecers inside a 5″ x 5″ x 2″ cardboard box. There are a few miscellaneous sizes, and then the remainder are 100 piecers in that same 5″ square box.

Several years ago, I got into the habit of putting a CODE on the back of each piece. Someone had given us a few puzzles, and I noticed that they were labeled on the back. What a great idea, I thought. Admittedly, it may be tedious to label those 100 pieces…

…but thank goodness, I do.

Pete, now, has decided he loves puzzles too.

And he knows where they are.

And he can open the door.

Of course, he doesn’t know how to put them together. And those cardboard boxes can be a bit difficult for a 20 month old to open. But no matter.

The fun, you see, isn’t in assembling the puzzle. That requires time, effort, fine motor skills, and thought processes above and beyond the capabilities of his little mind. No, he finds it vastly more amusing to rip open those pesky boxes and dump the contents in a heap about him. And to a toddler, 7 or 8 hundred puzzles pieces piled about you (plus their cardboard containers) has an effect similar to being buried in sand at the beach. Cool!

And so, when I spend an hour taping boxes and sorting pieces and counting to see if they’re all there when I had really planned that time to cleaning out the walk-in junk pile pantry, I can not but be thankful for that acquaintance who gave me coded puzzles and sparked a habit that years later would pay off big time.

02.21.07
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Have a blessed Lent

Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel. Mark 1:15

Even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing— grain offerings and drink offerings for the LORD your God.
Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly. Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber. Let the priests, who minister before the LORD, weep between the temple porch and the altar. Let them say, “Spare your people, O LORD. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’ ”
Then the LORD will be jealous for his land and take pity on his people. Joel 2:12-18
02.20.07
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To blog or not to blog

With Lent now only hours away, selecting penances, sacrifices and good intentions for the season has many a Catholic blogger scrambling to discern the best way to deepen her relationship with God. I’ve already seen one person bid the blogosphere a temporary adieu, and I can certainly understand and respect that decision. Blogging takes time.

I myself toyed with that idea. But…

Virtually all of the blogs I read are Catholic. Most of them routinely address living a Catholic life in a secular world. They are inspirational, encouraging, and often challenge me to be a better Catholic mother. Reading them is like getting a daily pep talk from a good friend. In addition, I suspect that the majority of folks who stop by here on a regular basis are getting a similar inspiration and encouragement from me. I don’t want to stop offering that to others.

But again, blogging takes time. The key is to find a decent balance between blogging about life and living life. Pep talks are great, but a team can’t spend the day in the locker room. It’s got to go out and play the game.

And so I have proposed to myself a two-part compromise.

First of all, I’m not going to comment on other people’s blogs. I am not a frequent commenter anywhere, but I do try to speak up often enough to not be considered a lurker. I’ll still read the blog, but I’m going to refrain from putting in my two cents. If you have grown accustomed to an occasional pithy remark from me, don’t worry, I still love you. Perhaps you may find my comments about your blog over here on mine.

Secondly, I’m turning off comments on my blog. My husband didn’t understand how much additional time and energy goes into your comments here. For whatever reason, Blogger does not usually send me an email notification of a comment. Before I began doing comment moderation, I had no idea that someone had left a comment. And comments sometimes require comments. Someone may ask a question or say something particularly nice, and silence on my part could be perceived as rude if the person didn’t realize that I was completely clueless that they had said something. It’s like leaving a message on an answering machine and never getting a call back.

Even after I enabled comment moderation, Blogger still doesn’t email me that comments have been left. I have to manually go into the moderation page to see if anyone has commented. It’s a pain, as you might imagine. And it takes time. And it causes me to compulsively check the dashboard about every hour. If there are no comments because you can’t leave comments there will be no excuse to go and check. I can better regulate my time online and stop wondering if anyone has left me a love note.

My email address is in the sidebar. I’m not saying that I don’t want any of you wasting my time by trying to engage me in conversation! No, I don’t mind dialogue at all. Feel free to send me a note.

So, this is your last chance!! Comments will be open here until bedtime tonight. Wish me a blessed and holy Lent as I wish the same for you.

02.20.07
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Field Trip: Mount Vernon

A fool and his money are soon parted. If however, the venture does not involve money, if however, the venture is **FREE**, you can bet that a cheap fool will keep his money, but waste his day. I am a cheap fool…perhaps the Queen Cheap Fool, and I dragged along my King and our five little jesters on an adventure to learn many lessons we already knew.

Lesson #1: Wither goest THE PRESIDENT, there also goeth large crowds, long lines, hassles and inconveniences.

Lesson #2: When you know you will encounter situations involving large crowds, long lines, hassles and inconveniences, it is best to leave children under the age of 10 at home.

Lesson #3: If the adventure is in part for the benefit of the children and there will be large crowds, long lines, hassles and inconveniences, it is best to have all other conditions be optimal: nice weather, plenty of snacks, not nap time, a stroller for resting, amusing things in pockets, etc.

Lesson #4: Having FREE admission in honor of President’s Day will draw HUGE crowds.

Lesson #5: Freezing weather and ice on the ground will not deter HUGE crowds, rather it will deter sane people but encourage cheap fools who have deluded themselves into thinking that perhaps, just perhaps, the freezing cold weather might keep people home.

Today, Mount Vernon offered FREE admission. They opened at 9 am, I read. We’ve been to Mount Vernon, but not in a while, and not inside the house. We had a year-long pass, but it has expired. Since we are moving this summer, I didn’t want to spring for another year-long pass, or even the one-day admission, which is more than $10 for anyone over 6, I think. I’m cheap.

My thought was to get there at or before 9 am. It was cold. It’s a holiday. I thought we could get there before most people roll out of bed on the Monday morning of a three-day weekend. Perhaps we’d wait a bit for entrance to the house, but surely not for long, right?

We ended up getting there around 9:20 am. I won’t even include that as a “mistake” because arriving 20 or 30 minutes earlier would probably not have significantly altered the rest of the morning. The parking lots there were full. We had to go up this one road, but our return route was blocked. We cut through residential streets and discovered satellite parking in a church lot with shuttle buses. The line was long – more than 2 bus loads. And it was now after 10 am.

Mistake #1: The smart thing at this point would have been to announce a change in plans and gone to Dunkin’ Donuts or Krispy Kreme. Really, this would have been the best thing to do. Instead we decided to hoof it over to Mount Vernon. It was only about a half mile, and the half inch of snow that fell yesterday thankfully provided just enough traction over the icy, cratered path. So it seemed like a workable plan.

Mistake #2: I had no idea that THE PRESIDENT was going to Mount Vernon at 9 am. Had I known this, I would have killed the plan or considered a much later time frame. At least we now understood the large crowds and blocked traffic. Grrrr.

Mistake #3: I had no idea that THE PRESIDENT’s visit would continue until about 11 am and that the house would be closed until his departure. By the time we got up to the house, it was nearly 11 am, and THE PRESIDENT was gone. But hundreds of people had gotten into line for the house tour while listening to THE PRESIDENT wish everyone a merry President’s Day.

Mistake #4: We actually got in line. Bill figured if we were going to debate and waffle about waiting in line, we may as well do it while in line and not stand to the side watching the line grow longer and longer. The line began to move and this led us to believe that it might not take that long to get to the head of it.

We waited for an eternity, that was probably about 15 minutes in duration to anyone who wasn’t accompanied by a 5 year old who clung tightly to your leg in an attempt to keep warm making muffled complaints about the weather into your pants, a 3 year old who repeatedly and loudly declared her desire to return to her place of residence while imitating a 30 pound sack of loosely bound potatoes lying on a dirt path, and a 20 month old who bemoaned his cold hands but who continually pulled his mittens off or squirmed and fought whenever you tried to put them on.

Finally we gave up and went to IHOP. It’s supposed to be in the 50s for the next three days – a high of 57 on Thursday. Couldn’t have had that weather today, huh? Saturday is supposed to be 48 degrees. Maybe we’ll try then. I may be a cheap fool, but I’d usually much rather lose money than time. In this case, it seems I will lose both.

02.18.07
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Family Movie Night – what not to watch

In recent months, I’ve been exposing the kids to musicals for family movie night. They’ve seen The Wizard of Oz, Kiss me Kate, Singing in the Rain, and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. So far, I think their favorite has been Singing in the Rain. Even my 3 year old was performing two of the songs weeks later. And the vaudeville/tap dancing is a big hit with the boys, although it hasn’t yet convinced them to take lessons.

{sigh}

Last night we watched West Side Story. I made the mistake of not checking the length of the movie before I promised it. It is 2 1/2 hours long. We got about 90 minutes in when I called a halt on account of the three younger ones who really needed to just go to bed. The older boys were disappointed. I was sorry, but that was that. This morning, Fritz woke up at 6 am as usual, and I found him in the family room cuing up the DVD to where we left off the night before. He and Petey and I watched the last hour before anyone else awoke.

This musical did not hold my kids’ interest nearly as much. They like tap dancing much more than modern dance and ballet, the songs are not as catchy, and the whole gang warfare concept was outside of their world view. In that last hour, there is the big rumble scene where the two gang leaders are killed. “Romeo” goes to “Juliet”‘s home and tells her he is responsible for her brother’s death, but that he didn’t mean to do it. They agree to run away together. He departs to wait for her to meet him later. Then word comes that an angry friend of her brother found out about their plans and killed her. It’s a lie, but “Romeo” believes it as truth and goes out looking for this man in the hopes that the friend will kill him too and end his misery.

Fritz asked: Why does he want to die? Oh, how glad I am that he is still young enough to not get that. And how glad I am that I am old enough to almost forget why myself.

Later in the morning, Billy told me that he didn’t need to watch the ending of the movie. Fritz clued him in that there was a big fight, people died, and that the ending was sad. OK, I can take a hint. Next up I think will be Annie Get Your Gun. They’ve recently learned about Annie Oakley, and this musical is supposed to be a battle of the sexes, happy ending love story. Sounds good to me.

02.16.07
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Deprivation

Fritz: Mom, when am I going to get my own phone?

Me: Uh, when you’re 19?

Fritz: Awww….

Me: Why do you need your own phone?

Fritz: So I don’t have to borrow a phone when I go over to a friend’s house. I can just use my own to tell you where I am.

Me: What’s so terrible about using someone else’s phone?

And then I get a huff and a shrug as though he were twelve and I’m just an out-of-touch mom for goodness sake: You just don’t get it, Mom.

For the record, we don’t know any eight-year-olds who have their own phones. I honestly think he was just being practical. And lazy: that additional step of asking to use a phone can be a bit troublesome, I guess. He seemed genuinely surprised when I told him that phones cost money. Yes, I think it’ll have to wait until he finds steady employment. Poor kid.

02.16.07
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Situation: Normal

For reasons beyond the ken of mere mortals, the public schools are closed for the third day in a row. The streets are clear, but apparently, the sidewalks are too icy for the kids to get to school (but not too icy for them to get to the sledding hills).

This school has not been closed, but our scheduled has been lax and abbreviated. Not that my kids can’t make 20% less work take 20% longer to do.

My neighbor just called about something and then asked me how I was making out with house-bound kids and all. We got off on a tangent about the weather conditions under which we went to school back in the day and laughed over how we sounded just like our parents. I realized after she hung up that she was struggling a bit to maintain sanity under adverse conditions: two rowdy active school-aged boys home for three days straight. Of course, for me, that is my normal, everyday life. Of course, also, for me, I let go of my sanity ages ago.