M: Do you want powdered sugar or maple syrup?
A: Both!
M: Both? No...that doesn't sound very good.
A: Always try new things!Remember?!
"This milk tastes like spit. Spit with 1 crumb. Not my spit. Someone else's."
"I'm not going to this school it totally looks like a prison."
Later, in the office, with the secretary and a couple of other families registering,
"See, it looks like a prison! I can't go to school here!"
D @ friends' house: How was that tree house?
A: Pretty boring. It's a cool tree house, but I think I need an airsoft gun.
A: coming in from outside: Do you have a laser?
Adult friend we were visiting: Actually, yes. Right here.
WHAT?! (she probs just became his favorite person lol)
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Proverbs...Elementary Style Revisited With A New Perspective
These can be pretty fun. I love to read what children think about these famous sayings. Some of their answers made me tear up with pride in their sense of knowledge and innocence. Some made me laugh. Some of them are obviously famous enough that even the youngest child has heard them before.
Allie's "Happy is the bride who ... thinks." Is so awesome! "Don't change horses when you're in the bog" is destined to become a new classic!
When Aidan tells you to "Strike while the ... tiger's not looking," you should probably listen. Both Allie and Aidan are pretty wise when it comes to an idle mind. Listen up!
(And if you want to read the answers from a few years ago, including the teens' answers from many years ago, check out this post.)
1. Don’t change horses (into ponies)(when
you’re in the bog)
2. Strike while the (tiger’s not looking)(foe
is weak)
3. Never underestimate the power of (Voldemort) (love)
4. It’s always darkest before (bedtime)(light)
5. You can lead a horse to water but (you can’t kill it)(you can't make it drink)
6. Don’t bite the hand that (is powerful)(feeds)
7. No news is (better than this one)(good news)
8. A miss is as good as a (hit)(hit)
9.You can’t teach an old dog new (tricks)(tricks)
10. If you lie down with dogs, you’ll (get furry)(become one of them)
11. Love all, trust (me)(none)
12. The pen is mightier than the (mighty Thor [or sword])(sword)
13. An idle mind is (stupid)(mind undone)
14. Where there’s smoke, there’s (fire)(fire)
15. Happy is the bride who (kisses)(thinks)
16. A penny saved is (good)(a penny earned)
17. Two’s company, three’s (good)(a crowd)
18. Don’t put off till tomorrow what (you can play now)(is here today)
19. Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and (the
whole world cries with you)(the world laughs at you)
20. There are none so blind as (a tree)(the light)
21. Children should be seen and not (not seen)(heard)
22. If at first you don’t succeed (then you try again) (try, try again)
23. You get out of something only what you (do)(give)
24. When the blind lead the blind (make an army)(they both go down)
25. A bird in the hand (will peck you)(is a bird in the dark)
26. Better late than (dead)(never)
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries
Sure, life's busy. But while we're spending our time doing all the things we prioritize, can't we enjoy that? Life is a bowl of cherries. Whether you use that sarcastically, or happily, it just is.
Notice how the cherries are not perfect little blemish-free balls of fruit? That's because they're real. They grow, they experience the weather, the sunshine, the rain, the jostles and bumps and we love them! That's how they grow into this delicious little mouthful of nutrition. Perfect in its imperfection. Just like real people.
Take a moment to savor each moment, the bowl of cherries that you share with whomever you choose. Live and laugh in each moment.
Notice how the cherries are not perfect little blemish-free balls of fruit? That's because they're real. They grow, they experience the weather, the sunshine, the rain, the jostles and bumps and we love them! That's how they grow into this delicious little mouthful of nutrition. Perfect in its imperfection. Just like real people.
Take a moment to savor each moment, the bowl of cherries that you share with whomever you choose. Live and laugh in each moment.
If Clothes Could Fold Themselves
While selling our house this time around, I have had some unique and interesting moments. From sitting at the park for hours in 100 degrees (which isn't really quite as hot as you think because, it's Texas, we're sort of used to it), to watching the pouring rain from the comfort of my car, sometimes we just do what needs to be done. And I'm not complaining. We had an offer after 9 days on the market and things seem to be moving along swimmingly. Still, there are moments when I really wish clothes could fold themselves, floors would vacuum themselves (like from underneath, not just roomba style), and when I leave the house before my college child,home for the summer, it would be wonderful if the bathroom counter would alert me if he left contact solution out. Yesterday as I tried to do as many tasks as possible before running over to pick up a friend while leaving the house ready for the buyer's appraiser, I had time to fold the towels, but truly not enough time to actually run them to their bathrooms. Yep. I cut it all THAT close. I chucked the towels back into the dryer and left the house for the day. How nice to return to a dryer full of folder laundry! The future is here. Brought to us by...well...ourselves.
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Super Powers
There's always that one moment when you are absolutely too tired to get up and switch off the light; you convince yourself that your powers of telekinesis have just been lying dormant, waiting to be awakened. Though, no matter how hard your try, that light isn't turning off. It is then that you realize that if you're too tired to get up, you are also too tired to utilize those hidden mental powers. Telekinesis will have to wait until tomorrow.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Hardest Goes First?
Do you have any "things" that you like to do in a certain order, but you don't really know why. You can explain it to yourself, but someone else may do it entirely different and explain it equally well. I'm not talking about sock, sock, shoe, shoe vs sock, shoe, sock, shoe, because everybody agrees the former is the correct way. I'm just talking about little things, and the sock shoe thing is definitely a big thing. A deal-breaker big thing. Right?
When doing homework or reading books, Aidan chooses the hardest first. Even if he chooses his two favorite books to read, he reads the "hardest" one first. Before starting on his homework, he looks through it all and sorts it from hardest to easiest and insists on doing it that way. On the other hand, Aimee does the easiest homework first and saves the hard stuff for last. Both of them can explain their reasoning seemingly convincingly, but I'm guessing that whichever way YOU do it, is the way that will make the most sense to you.
Watching him do homework reminded me of Alex doing his at about the same age. My sweet 18 year old Alex used to be 7, did you know? A long time ago. (It doesn't seem like quite so long ago.) He had a 5 sentence paragraph to write each day to practice the spelling words. His teacher firmly believed that if children learned to write the words in context, rather than in a list, they would continue to spell them correctly for their whole life. It's a great concept, but 7 and 8 year old children don't like to write that much every day. Each day Alex counted how many words were left. And instead of subtracting the amount that he wrote, every few words he recounted. It's not that counting was easier than subtracting; he excelled in math. He just liked to count them. I think he thought it broke it up and made it take less time, but I promise you, it didn't. Some days, homework seemed to last all afternoon.
This week, my friend and I went to clean the church. When I got there, she was already starting in the bathroom because "it's the hardest, so I always do it first." I, however, do them last because I don't like them, so I do everything else before. Unfortunately for her, (fortunately for me?) I didn't get finished with the other tasks before she finished bathrooms, so she did them on her own. (Incidentally, I was wondering if you all have families assigned or volunteered to help clean the church or if there is someone else who does that. We used to have someone, now we just all chip in and do it.)
When doing homework or reading books, Aidan chooses the hardest first. Even if he chooses his two favorite books to read, he reads the "hardest" one first. Before starting on his homework, he looks through it all and sorts it from hardest to easiest and insists on doing it that way. On the other hand, Aimee does the easiest homework first and saves the hard stuff for last. Both of them can explain their reasoning seemingly convincingly, but I'm guessing that whichever way YOU do it, is the way that will make the most sense to you.
Watching him do homework reminded me of Alex doing his at about the same age. My sweet 18 year old Alex used to be 7, did you know? A long time ago. (It doesn't seem like quite so long ago.) He had a 5 sentence paragraph to write each day to practice the spelling words. His teacher firmly believed that if children learned to write the words in context, rather than in a list, they would continue to spell them correctly for their whole life. It's a great concept, but 7 and 8 year old children don't like to write that much every day. Each day Alex counted how many words were left. And instead of subtracting the amount that he wrote, every few words he recounted. It's not that counting was easier than subtracting; he excelled in math. He just liked to count them. I think he thought it broke it up and made it take less time, but I promise you, it didn't. Some days, homework seemed to last all afternoon.
This week, my friend and I went to clean the church. When I got there, she was already starting in the bathroom because "it's the hardest, so I always do it first." I, however, do them last because I don't like them, so I do everything else before. Unfortunately for her, (fortunately for me?) I didn't get finished with the other tasks before she finished bathrooms, so she did them on her own. (Incidentally, I was wondering if you all have families assigned or volunteered to help clean the church or if there is someone else who does that. We used to have someone, now we just all chip in and do it.)
PSA ala The Price Is Right
"Help control the pet population. Have your pet spayed or neutered." Seriously, people. This is not just a phrase of some random words thrown together. This is IMPORTANT. Gah! Stop selling animals like they are your living!! And no, most of you aren't careful breeders of some AKC breed that are carefully bred. Stop acting like you're doing the world a favor by guilting everyone into getting one more of your over-bred animals! I do feel for the animals, that's why I say this. What I wish was that you didn't think it was so great that your pet and its off-spring are paying for your irresponsibility as the owner. Telling us all about how cool it is isn't convincing anyone that it's okay for you to fail your pet.
Rant continued (if you are a cat lover, I don't mean any disrespect to you, just the over-proliferation of memes, I promise):
I hate cat memes. It's like the world is being taken over. How is it funny to keep posting "grumpy cat" pictures and referring this to your own life. I don't get it. And I don't want to see it. I wish I could report them as spam. Someone recently joked that there would soon be two internets: one as the regular internet, the other that is told as "Mean Girls" quotes. This would be slightly humorous, but not close enough to truth. There may be two parallel internet worlds, but one will be totally dominated by strange obsessive cat memes and cats who mind-control their owners into letting them run the computer. (Actually, as I typed this, I flipped over to facebook to post an idea and saw 2 new posts with that annoying meme. I can't wait for this trend to disappear.)
Lastly, this isn't a rant as much as a request, but I still feel kind of bad for saying it. (Apparently today's post is just the feel-guilty-for-posting-it one and I will hope that I don't incur the wrath of cat-lovers, meme-lovers, and lovers of music legends.) Blasphemy, probably.
Leonard Cohen remakes, please! I almost get him. Almost. There are parts in 'Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye' that I like. The guitar stuff in "The Stranger Song" is nifty. But then he sings some run on breathless too low lyric and I start to wonder again. I want to like them, but the songs are just too strangely written. I would like to see new arrangements. For example, the version of "Hallelujah" that we all know and love by Jeff Buckley was thankfully rearranged by John Cale, because really, the original sounds kind of creepy.
So, am I just not listening to the right songs or does someone really need to rearrange these things? Or if he's your favorite, can you explain it to me?
Maybe each of these situations could be corrected if Leonard Cohen would write a song about getting your pets fixed. Our veterinarians would have an influx and our world would be happier?
Rant continued (if you are a cat lover, I don't mean any disrespect to you, just the over-proliferation of memes, I promise):
I hate cat memes. It's like the world is being taken over. How is it funny to keep posting "grumpy cat" pictures and referring this to your own life. I don't get it. And I don't want to see it. I wish I could report them as spam. Someone recently joked that there would soon be two internets: one as the regular internet, the other that is told as "Mean Girls" quotes. This would be slightly humorous, but not close enough to truth. There may be two parallel internet worlds, but one will be totally dominated by strange obsessive cat memes and cats who mind-control their owners into letting them run the computer. (Actually, as I typed this, I flipped over to facebook to post an idea and saw 2 new posts with that annoying meme. I can't wait for this trend to disappear.)
Lastly, this isn't a rant as much as a request, but I still feel kind of bad for saying it. (Apparently today's post is just the feel-guilty-for-posting-it one and I will hope that I don't incur the wrath of cat-lovers, meme-lovers, and lovers of music legends.) Blasphemy, probably.
Leonard Cohen remakes, please! I almost get him. Almost. There are parts in 'Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye' that I like. The guitar stuff in "The Stranger Song" is nifty. But then he sings some run on breathless too low lyric and I start to wonder again. I want to like them, but the songs are just too strangely written. I would like to see new arrangements. For example, the version of "Hallelujah" that we all know and love by Jeff Buckley was thankfully rearranged by John Cale, because really, the original sounds kind of creepy.
So, am I just not listening to the right songs or does someone really need to rearrange these things? Or if he's your favorite, can you explain it to me?
Maybe each of these situations could be corrected if Leonard Cohen would write a song about getting your pets fixed. Our veterinarians would have an influx and our world would be happier?
Thursday, March 7, 2013
The Moment You Are Looking Forward To Folding Clothes...And Other Oddities
Ah the joyous feeling! You know the one. When you've been down with a cold, or possibly the flu, for 4 days, and you finally are able to see the mess that has accumulated while you have been faking the mom/housekeeper/homemaker part of your job, despite helpful children and husband. Even better, you realize that you didn't crash into bed at 9pm, but are awake at 12:30am and realizing that you have both the desire and the energy to clean it all up, despite the fact that the 6am alarm is looming in your mind. So, in the middle of the night, you sort the laundry, arrange the fridge, make lunches, and windex to your little heart's desire, because guess what?! You can see without sinus tears running down your face. You can breath clearly! And when you exert for 2 minutes, you aren't panting! I have some catching up to work on today, but I'm thrilled that I can actually do it! Do the happy dance with me.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Monday, October 29, 2012
Class Starts Today!
"More input!"
When Number 5 from the movie, "Short Circuit," says this line, I totally understand. I always always always want more input. Sometimes, this is a bad thing. I can get overwhelmed by how much I "don't know yet," instead of focusing on what I do know. But, in general, I love to learn as long as I'm keeping it balanced with the rest of my busy life. So, I am super excited about my new learning venture.
I am pleased to announce that I am currently enrolled in the the Health Coach Training program with The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. This means that in the next year, I get to study more in depth all the ins and outs of nutrition and heath, which I do on my own anyway. When the program is over, I will be a Certified Health Coach and have the opportunity to work with clients who are also looking for ways to gain a healthier lifestyle and a healthier view of themselves and the world.
The program incorporates multiple aspects that I believe are important for maintaining a healthy life. There have been times in my life where I have been totally connected to myself and my desires and have had little trouble doing the healthy things that make me feel great. I didn't need motivation to exercise, I just did it because I loved it. Then, there came a time where I allowed other "things" to get in the way. This will change.
Though I have maintained a relatively healthy diet with my family and myself, I love discovering new ways of looking at food and the different ways that they can power our minds and bodies. I am also really looking forward to connecting with the world in a positive and meaningful way.
In addition to benefiting myself and my family, I am really excited to be able to learn how best to help my community become happier and healthier.
So, off I go, with my backpack and lunchbox in toe. Not really. It's all online and waiting for me to get started. Here comes Polly!
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Thursday, September 13, 2012
A Small Change
Sometimes all it takes is simple small change to get an entirely different perspective. For example: this morning I took the diffuser off my blow dryer and it was like a whole different appliance. Not better, not worse. Just different. Who needs to take their diffuser off with me today?? Anyone?! :)
Sunday, September 2, 2012
A Word On "Man Caves"
I hate them.
Okay, that was three words.
I feel like in a world where we are fighting to keep our families together, fighting to keep interests together, fighting to keep our finances in check (recession, anyone??), "man caves" are entirely over rated. Why all the positive publicity on man caves, when there should really be some negative publicity about them. When we design our homes, we are creating a warm and inviting place for our friends and family to come and share and enjoy he company of others.
If you happen to have extra room for a ping pong table, great. But shouldn't that be a "game room" or "rec room" for the whole family to enjoy together, rather than isolated and dubbed as belonging to one gender? In our very "equal" time of society, how do people even justify saying that men are the only ones who want to play?
I vaguely remember a suggestion about "cave time" in a popular relationship guidebook, but as I recall, he was not specifically suggesting creating an actual "cave," rather he was suggesting that in "some" cases it would be a literal retreat, ie, a garage or time with friends, others it would just be a mental retreat from the stressors. He didn't imply that one should invest great sums of money and take space away from a family living environment to create an area to isolate oneself on a regular basis.
Take a few minutes to quietly connect with your thoughts, fine. Take the only precious few hours you may have with your family and isolate yourself from that interaction, not okay.
It will be much easier to connect with your family and friends if you are sharing passions, interest, hobbies, and more importantly, time.
Okay, that was three words.
I feel like in a world where we are fighting to keep our families together, fighting to keep interests together, fighting to keep our finances in check (recession, anyone??), "man caves" are entirely over rated. Why all the positive publicity on man caves, when there should really be some negative publicity about them. When we design our homes, we are creating a warm and inviting place for our friends and family to come and share and enjoy he company of others.
If you happen to have extra room for a ping pong table, great. But shouldn't that be a "game room" or "rec room" for the whole family to enjoy together, rather than isolated and dubbed as belonging to one gender? In our very "equal" time of society, how do people even justify saying that men are the only ones who want to play?
I vaguely remember a suggestion about "cave time" in a popular relationship guidebook, but as I recall, he was not specifically suggesting creating an actual "cave," rather he was suggesting that in "some" cases it would be a literal retreat, ie, a garage or time with friends, others it would just be a mental retreat from the stressors. He didn't imply that one should invest great sums of money and take space away from a family living environment to create an area to isolate oneself on a regular basis.
Take a few minutes to quietly connect with your thoughts, fine. Take the only precious few hours you may have with your family and isolate yourself from that interaction, not okay.
It will be much easier to connect with your family and friends if you are sharing passions, interest, hobbies, and more importantly, time.
Don't Brush Your Teeth In the Shower
Little or no rainfall in the past couple of years has severely depleted the lakes and rivers. In Andrews, our water comes from underground aquafers, not lakes and rivers, so we actually don't have water restrictions. Unfortunately, there are some who really should be cutting back more than they are. It's sad to see big pools of standing water in the streets at anytime, but in a drought, it feels worse.
Now that the water supply is a critical level, the surrounding cities have finally implemented their own water restrictions, and since the restrictions didn't really work, they are now fining people for going over their allotment. The amount of water they are allowed is plenty, it just doesn't supply a lot for watering grass. Many residents are doing a really great job, coming up with really innovative and/or resourceful uses for all of their water, which in many cases, all of us should be doing anyway.
One thing that confuses me is when people cheerily state that they are saving water by brushing their teeth in the shower. Huh?! Clearly turning the faucet on low volume for a second, then turning it off, brushing your teeth, then turning the faucet back on for a couple seconds to rinse is far more efficient than standing under the shower water at full volume to brush your teeth for two minutes, all the while letting all that water run down the drain. Yet, it hasn't been a suggestion from just one person; quite a few have thought this might be a really awesome plan. Each time I see it, I have kindly suggested they continue to brush their teeth at the sink, rather than in the shower, and have reviewed the amount of water involved in the two choices. I can only assume these people have previously been brushing their teeth in the sink with the water running the whole time. Really?!
Now that the water supply is a critical level, the surrounding cities have finally implemented their own water restrictions, and since the restrictions didn't really work, they are now fining people for going over their allotment. The amount of water they are allowed is plenty, it just doesn't supply a lot for watering grass. Many residents are doing a really great job, coming up with really innovative and/or resourceful uses for all of their water, which in many cases, all of us should be doing anyway.
One thing that confuses me is when people cheerily state that they are saving water by brushing their teeth in the shower. Huh?! Clearly turning the faucet on low volume for a second, then turning it off, brushing your teeth, then turning the faucet back on for a couple seconds to rinse is far more efficient than standing under the shower water at full volume to brush your teeth for two minutes, all the while letting all that water run down the drain. Yet, it hasn't been a suggestion from just one person; quite a few have thought this might be a really awesome plan. Each time I see it, I have kindly suggested they continue to brush their teeth at the sink, rather than in the shower, and have reviewed the amount of water involved in the two choices. I can only assume these people have previously been brushing their teeth in the sink with the water running the whole time. Really?!
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Guess My Drawing
As if the Roomba weren't a lazy enough way to vacuum (hey, if you have one, I'm not judging, I just might borrow it for a couple days), Aidan was just playing "Guess My Drawing." After a few unsuccessful guesses from Allie and myself, he told us it was a "Chair Vacuum."
Me: Oh, like a riding lawn mower?
A: Yeah, but you don't drive it, you just sit; you control it with your eyes. So if you move your eyes to the left, the vacuum goes left. And then you move your eyes to the right to make it go right. It's a good invention, right?!
Me: uuummm...yep, uh-huh. It's awesome.
Me: Oh, like a riding lawn mower?
A: Yeah, but you don't drive it, you just sit; you control it with your eyes. So if you move your eyes to the left, the vacuum goes left. And then you move your eyes to the right to make it go right. It's a good invention, right?!
Me: uuummm...yep, uh-huh. It's awesome.
Sunday, August 5, 2012
A Fine Line
"Fat-Free Organic Milk?! Mom, there comes a time when milk stops being milk. You may have found that line." ~Alex
(imho, organic milk just tastes more like milk, not less)
(imho, organic milk just tastes more like milk, not less)
Friday, August 3, 2012
Carry On
You know when you spill juice on your toes and you just know that no matter how many times you wipe it away, at 2pm you will be really annoyed by that stickiness that just won't go away? No? Well, that was today for me. Despite the sticky, the day has to move on. Children need love, neighbors need words of encouragement, that friend who just had a baby needs dinner, and the water bill has to get paid. Despite the sticky, the world goes on.
How cute is this little guy?!
One day, when it's "Cuties" season again and my toe isn't sticky, I am totally going to peel my fruit like that.
(and this post is finally the 4th and final positive messages posts that were supposed to be sent in 4 consecutive weeks to my RS sister for my service to her...how fitting)
How cute is this little guy?!
One day, when it's "Cuties" season again and my toe isn't sticky, I am totally going to peel my fruit like that.
(and this post is finally the 4th and final positive messages posts that were supposed to be sent in 4 consecutive weeks to my RS sister for my service to her...how fitting)
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Inner Strength
“What lies behind us
and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
We
all have an incredible amount of inner strength. When we put aside our doubts
and fears, we have the strength to face whatever the day brings.
(This is the 3rd of 4 positive thoughts posts. I'm way behind on the weeks that it should have been posted, but...whatever.)
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