05.05.10
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Little Ears, Big Mouths

Bill met me at the hospital where I was to have a needle stuck in my foot. Rather unpleasant experience. He took the kids to get haircuts (the boys) and to buy Mother’s Day presents.

I met him when I was done and we argued discussed the parking over by his office where I had to go for a meeting. His parking lot is tight and there are few free spaces. And my van is big. He wanted me to just pull up behind his car. I whined about how small his lot was, and suggested he drive the van and I would drive his car.

He agreed, although he teased me mercilessly. I believe the term he used was “pathetic.” You see how he loves me?

An hour later, after the meeting, we loaded the kids up and I pulled away. Peter pipes up from the middle row. “Mommy, why were you uncomfortable parking Moby?”

Just when you think their minds are like sieves, they prove how closely they really do listen.

05.05.10
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Free Speech is SUPPOSED to make the Government uncomfortable

Spend about 10 minutes reading the news and you’ll find a growing and ominous grumbling about those “radical” Tea Party types. I find it very alarming when the mayor of NYC vocalizes the suspicion that the person responsible for the car bomb in the city was likely “somebody with a political agenda that doesn’t like the health care bill.” Most reasonable Americans might jump to the conclusion that radical Islamists were involved, and, once again, such suspicions would have been correct.

Instead, there seems to be a concerted effort to demonize those who think that the State is getting a bit too big. If Big Brother says it often enough, does that make it true? Americans should be worried when riot police are called out when people peacefully assemble. I don’t have a problem with riot police being placed on alert, or even being brought to the area. But to place them as if ready to battle docile, unarmed citizens singing patriotic songs calmly?

Even more shocking is when an Army officer edits an emergency response exercise to include TEA PARTY protesters as potentially violent. It’s bad enough when the President criticizes those who speak out against the government by saying “it undermines democratic deliberation” and that “it coarsens our culture, and at its worst, it can send signals to the most extreme elements of our society that perhaps violence is a justifiable response.” I would expect him to get his panties all in a bunch over being called a socialist. But when you start to see Army officers buying into the notion that anyone who speaks out against the government is a threat to democracy, we are in big trouble.

In six months, the entire House, a third of the Senate, and 36 governors are up for election. I think we are beyond squabbling about tax rates and gays in the military. We have some serious constitutional issues at stake. I pray we resolve these concerns, specifically the threat to our Bill of Rights, in a peaceful manner.

05.04.10
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Growing pains

Looking back on my childhood, I can remember many occasions where I learned some lessons about life, and what it means to be an adult. Some of these lessons were good. But I think the ones that are burned into my memory the most are the bad lessons. The ones that hurt.

That’s the way it is, right?

Today, I think, I witnessed my oldest son learning one of those lessons. Maybe he’ll forget about it. But more than likely, this will be something he keeps in his mind. I only hope it falls into the “what not to do” category instead of the “this is how grownups treat kids” mentality.

When I signed the kids up for baseball, I did it online. I found that very convenient. I do not know, had I signed them up in person, if we would have been given a packet of guidelines or not. I do know that we encountered some rules and practices that we had never done before. For example, all boys bring their own helmets. All helmets must have the face protector too.

OK. Fine.

A few weeks ago, one of the umps made Fritz give him his watch. I guess the boys aren’t allowed to wear watches during the games. Fritz has made sure to keep his watch in the car from then on. At the end of that inning, Billy reminded Fritz about the watch and the ump gave it back.

Last week, Fritz’s coach noticed his scapular. It is a unique scapular-and-rosary-combination made from a molded brown plastic. Unique, but cheap. He got it years ago when we lived in Kansas. It is blessed and he was enrolled at the time in the brown scapular. He wore it for a while, then stopped, but then started wearing it again months and months ago.

Apparently, it’s not just watches but all jewelry that is forbidden (risk of breakage). So, the coach, rightly, I suppose, took the scapular. They both forgot about it, and Fritz went home without it. I don’t know when exactly Fritz remembered it, but I do know that he came home from practice on Sunday evening upset that the coach still had it. I think he was hoping the coach would have remembered it and returned it without prompting.

At the conclusion of the game today, knowing that sometimes we adults have other things on our minds and don’t always remember the contraband necklace that we pocketed a week ago, I told Fritz to ask his coach for his scapular. The rest of us went on ahead to the van and loaded up. When Fritz joined us a minute later, he looked crushed.

“What did he say?” I asked.

“He said he didn’t take my necklace,” the poor boy replied.

As an adult, I know that the man simply forgot all about it. As a mother, though, I know how Fritz sees it: the coach stole his scapular and lied about it. It is one thing to hear about other people who do wrong things, and we did discuss this situation. It is quite another to be the victim of an injustice. This is the age where children begin to learn that adults make mistakes, they aren’t perfect, they fail you. It is, unfortunately, all part of growing up.

Tough lessons.

05.02.10
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Just when you think they are growing up

Peter was the last one to brush his teeth. I checked on him after a few minutes expecting him to be done. Instead of brushing, he was fastidiously cleaning his siblings’ toothpaste droppings off the counter and the sink. Once the job was completed, he then retrieved his toothbrush and took care of his bedtime hygiene ritual.

Finally, I thought, one kid gets it. One kid sees how disgusting it is to find toothpaste on the counter. One kid cleans the mess instead of leaving it to others. Hooray. My Mama’s Pride was pleased.

He scurried off to bed, and I stopped in to turn off the light (another thing that drives me nuts about my kids – leaving lights on). I looked down expecting to see a sparkling sink. Wrong.

I guess it’s one thing to approach a dirty sink, and quite another to walk away from one. He left his own trail of blue gel for the next person to see.

04.30.10
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Failing the Test

Man Who Found Next-Generation iPhone in Bar ‘Regrets His Mistake’

A young man finds a prototype iPhone in a bar. It isn’t claimed by anyone sitting in his vicinity, so he keeps it and ends up selling it to a competitor for $5000. Despite this, his lawyer says he’s a really good person:

“Brian has been working part time at a Church run community center where he was teaching swimming to kids age 3 to 10. He also has taught English in China to college students and volunteered at a Chinese orphanage in 2009 while enrolled in a study abroad program through college. In that same year, Brian volunteered in Vietnam to plant a friendship garden.

He also volunteers to assist his aunt and sister with fund-raising for their work to provide medical care to orphans in Kenya.”

Volunteer work is nice and all, but a true test of a person’s virtue is how they behave when faced with temptation. Not many people give away their time or money for worthwhile causes, and hence they are laudable activities. But fewer still do the right thing when nobody is looking, when there is money to be made, or when it seems you can get away with it.

All he had to do was turn the phone over to the bartender. Simple. He failed. I’m sure he’s a nice enough guy, but I wouldn’t trust him.

04.28.10
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Super Nanny "saving" the day, again

California County Bans Toys in Kids’ Meals at Restaurants

Yeager said the aim is to help direct parents to more healthy choices. He said the government has a responsibility to keep kids safe, and cited rules on car seats, cribs and other baby items as examples where the policymakers step in to regulate products.

Yesterday, I watched my friend’s four children while she took her fifth to a doctor’s appointment. Thank goodness I own a big van, because three of mine and three of hers had piano lessons in back-to-back sessions. After the first session, I picked up my children and her one daughter who was working on a duet with Katie, left my friend’s older two, and drove straight to the fast food drive through.

It has been at least a few weeks since any of these children have eaten fast food.

I offered a limited selection: burgers (the small ones) or nuggets.

Everybody shared an order of fries with somebody else (and many were left uneaten).

I purchased no soda; We ate at my house, where they could have water, milk or lemonade.

My friend’s daughter asked for apple slices; I gave her an apple at home.

One of mine asked for a meal with a toy; I said NO.

All of these children are skinny.

Genetics?

Coincidence?

Better parental decision making?

We weren’t this obese 30 years ago, and they had toys then, too.

04.27.10
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How to "share" snacks with children

A recent informal survey shows that, if offered blue corn chips and no other alternatives, four out of six children will reject the blue corn chips outright and the other two will consume only a fraction of what they would had they been white or yellow corn chips, leaving many left for parents to consume all by themselves.

I am brilliant.

04.26.10
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Starting Monday Off Right

Inspiration for a Monday morning:

Sophia Academy founder is Georgia’s ‘Mother Of The Year’

“…after one particularly frustrating and despairing day, she came home in the early afternoon and just “wanted to sit in my car and cry,” Corrigan says. But then she had an unusual visit.

“I look up and see this man in a white painter’s suit—we had some painting done at our house—so I thought maybe he was looking for work. I got out of the car and told him, ‘I don’t need any painting today.’ But he didn’t ask me for a job; he just gave me a textbook with a cover with an eagle on it and a bible verse.”

The verse on the jacket cover was from the book of Isaiah: “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

“Then he left, and I never saw him again.”

I love that the messenger was dressed in white.

04.25.10
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Debut

Of interest to those who have deployed spouses: I wrote an article for a National Guard magazine (Foundations) which they published last month. If you follow this link, you need to flip to page 48.

I must admit, it’s pretty nice to see your own writing in print.

If you are a National Guard family and did not receive a copy of this magazine, let me know. I have a few extra copies. It’s pretty good.