All over the map today

I could write about numerous things today, but I know time is growing short for me--I'm down to one hour to shower and dress before we have to pick up Caitlin, so it's a quick trip through my thoughts this morning.

First, I was pissed at the lady at the sign-in desk at the elementary school this morning! Today Caroline had to bring in her project--she (we) made a chickee (a Seminole dwelling). Granted, I put it in a shoebox to make it easier to carry, and Caroline was carrying it just fine, but I was worried about her tripping and sending the thing flying. (I have developed an irrational fear that the glue will suddenly give way--and she'd be left with a pile of sticks.) Plus, I just wanted to go with my kid to her class--is that such a bad thing? But nooooo, the lady at the desk decreed (after I got my visitor sticker on and was heading to the class) that if Caroline could carry it by herself, I couldn't go. Hmpf.

Next, I'm a little excited for my little man. I've just signed Bobby up for tee-ball! How cute is that gonna be! This is his first sport activity, and I'm just tickled to death. I may feel differently once we're into the middle of the season--having to drag along unwilling older sisters, etc. But for now, I'll just go with the excitement!

Finally, I have some reading to do. I really want to find a good novel (my latest pick, Tipperary, isn't going that well. I've decided it's like "Irish Forrest Gump!" And that's not a good thing.), but for now I'm going to settle with reading the various Democratic candidates' "Plans" for America. I read John Edwards' plan last week, and I really really liked what he had to say. Now I realize that he's unfortunately probably not going to get the nomination, so I'd best check out what the other two have to say and see if I can get inspired by either. I'm feeling Barack more than Hillary at this point, but I'm really feeling Edwards the most. Anyway, this is the first time I've really done research on any candidate--beyond just reading blurbs and quick-comparison sheets of candidates in magazines. I think this is the first Presidential election in my lifetime (since I've been old enough to vote) where I really feel how high the stakes are--for our country and for the world, and it's important to get it right. Having dumped that bit of stuff on you, I'm off to the showers!

Whew!

I just ate lunch--and that's a big deal for me today. I spent most of yesterday in bed. When I wasn't sleeping, I was eating tasty white bread and praying it would stay put. It seems I caught some version of whatever fun virus is going around. Caitlin threw up last Sunday night, and Bobby threw up all over the kitchen table on Wednesday night, so it was just a matter of time before another family member began to show symptoms. But Caitlin and Bobby were really fine as soon as they were done vomiting--no fever, no other complaints--they weren't even really slowed down at all. I would have much preferred to barf once and get on with life instead of missing an entire day. On the upside, I did get to catch up on shows I never knew were on TV--like the one that follows the parking ticket people around Philadelphia, or the series about families that have more than 12 kids, or the Dilley sextuplets (I never even heard of them).

So, today I'm cleaning up and doing laundry--it's really no different from any other day. And Caroline and I are periodically working to finish her Native American project that is due tomorrow.

And now, Deep Thoughts...

After I dropped the girls off at school, Bobby and I had to drop off Rob's suit at the dry cleaners. We have a pick-up service, but it only works if you actually put the clothes out to be picked up, and I completely forgot to do that yesterday (never mind that the dry-cleaning bag has never been so full in the time we've used this service!).

Anyway, we were listening to the radio on our short drive to the cleaners, and wouldn't you know it, this radio station was doing their hourly celebrity smut/news segment. Today's report was all about Britney's latest court date. I wish I had changed the station. I'm really trying to cut out all this unnecessary "news" from my life. I don't care about Britney/Lindsay/Paris. I think Jamie Lynn's show should have been immediately pulled from the air. The powers that be--be it these girls themselves, the girls' parents, agents, or paparazzi--have turned these girls into role models for young America. And what awful role models they are! Do we want the new American dream to be "get your own TV show, shack up with your also-teenaged boyfriend, and get pregnant." Or how about "be an actor for a few years, party too much, go in and out of rehab--but be sure to go out shopping as soon as you leave rehab so the strangers with cameras can follow your every move--including the inevitable relapse."

This excessive paparazzi/tabloid coverage seems to be a chicken and egg thing: do they take all the pictures and publish all the tabloids because people really want this stuff, or do people just buy it because it's there at the checkout line every week? How could we break the cycle?

Do Americans really have nothing more to worry about than the current state of Brad and Angelina?

On Saturday night, we started watching The Queen. It's the movie in which Helen Mirren portrays Queen Elizabeth during the week that Princess Diana was killed. We stopped watching after about an hour. But in that hour, I was struck by the real interviews with mourners (the film intersperses real footage among the dramatized portions). These people were genuinely distraught. I'm not saying that Diana's death wasn't sad---most untimely deaths are sad--but the outpouring of grief seemed more appropriate for a family member or a close friend, not a public figure. Then, as the film showed the flowers accumulating at the palace gate, I began to get irritated. If these people thought Diana was such a great humanitarian, why not take the money they spent on flowers and donate that amount to one of her favorite charities? How much money could have been raised in that week?


On Sunday night, I watched a little of 60 Minutes as the children took their baths. Anderson Cooper was doing a story from the Congo. He was reporting on the rampant rape problem that plagues that country and its women. He ended the piece at a school. All of the students were women--most of them rape victims--and for most of them, this was their first formal educational experience. One woman, a rape victim who had been profiled in the story, was in the school with her infant daughter (a product of the eight months of constant rape she endured while held captive) and hoped to one day start her own business. Wow. My eyes were welling up with tears at the end of the story. The life these women have endured, and they're still smiling and hopeful. Don't my problems seem insignificant? And then CBS cut to commerical: Whiten your teeth faster with Crest White Strips!

Disconnect much?

Okay, I realize I'm getting very grumpy. I can see from my TV experience this weekend that people's priorities have been out of whack for quite some time, my own included. I can't make everyone stop buying the Star, or Us Weekly, but I can stop reading them in the checkout line. I can stop going to perezhilton.com and tmz.com. I can stop watching Extra and Access Hollywood. I think letting go of the celebrity news crap will actually be pretty easy.

But the larger world issues are tougher. I can't solve the problems in the Congo, but I can think about them. I can try to be more mindful of the world's issues. I can get educated about them. I could give the money I'd spend on an InStyle magazine to a relief fund.

I think it's an American trait to want to tackle a problem head-on. Just bring all your resources to bear on a problem and get it done right away. But when the problem is something huge, like the Congo, that's not feasible. And the feeling that one person can't change the world is discouraging. So how to begin? Ghandi once said, "be the change you wish to see in the world." Those are great words to try to put into action.

Monday...

Things overheard in my house in the last thirteen hours:

"Mooo-oooommmm, Caitlin pooped in the shooooow-errrr!"

"Mommy, the dog is bothering me. I threw up in my bed, and he's eating the puke."

Needless to say, Caitlin did not go to school today. She has no fever, no real complaints--in other words, this was probably an isolated incident, but I have to keep her out anyway.

So it's 8:30, and I'm already on my second load of laundry today. Awesome!

And it didn't snow last night. I am disappointed. Rob could probably go for years without seeing snow, but I do not feel that way. I grew up in South Carolina, and snow was a very rare occurrence, and thus a very big deal. I still get excited at the prospect. Now that we've moved to Pennsylvania, I think we're just a few miles too far inland to really get those good nor'easters that we sometimes got in New Jersey. I don't like being on this side of the rain-snow line! I am sure that if I hadn't gone out and bought snow boots for Bobby and Caroline last week that we'd be buried in it today...it is only January. February usually has a few chances for snow.

Wishing you happy winter thoughts today! Stay well!

So, yesterday I went shopping here, and I bought eggs, bacon, some filets and some other stuff. I think the greatest part of my excursion was the chickens roaming the parking lot when I pulled in. Call me strange, but I find chickens to be both tasty and hilarious. And when I was driving away, I passed several other farms. One farm's sign said "American Bison", and damn if I didn't look up and see one standing right next to the fence! That doesn't happen every day. I think the most disturbing part of my venture into semi-rural Pennsylvania was how development is encroaching everywhere. I'd drive by a barn, and over the next hill I could see three developments. The developments looked like eyesores!

This morning we had farm-fresh bacon and scrambled eggs. Pretty tasty! Tonight I'll get my first taste of locally-raised grass fed beef.

Today we went bowling. I bowled a rock-solid 85. I just kill, don't I? For the life of me, I cannot figure out how I continue to be so bad at rolling a ten pound ball down a lane. As we finished our game, the disco lights were turned on. Wow, did I wonder where the time went--I remember when we used to go midnight bowling--with disco lights and pitchers of beer.

This has been a random post, I know, but I'm trying to organize my thoughts while the kids swing from the rafters. It's supposed to snow tonight and tomorrow. That should be fun--we haven't really had any decent snowfall so far this season.

New Year, Old-Fashioned Thoughts

Most years, I "resolve" to keep it up at the gym and to try to eat more fish. Ditto for 2008. It's not really a formal resolution, just some ideas I try to keep in mind.

This year, things are ... well, different, I guess. You may recall from an earlier posting that I want to try shopping at "sustainable" farms--I'm afraid that word is going to become as overused (and abused) as "green." I want the foods I eat to be as unadulterated as possible.

I feel like the Christmas season has become an orgy of unrestrained spending--and this year I did try to pull back on the amount of stuff the kids received. And yet, on December 25, each child had a stack of presents to open. In response to the overspending, I'm now trying like hell not to spend. It sucks. I love shopping. I love buying things on sale. I love telling my husband how much a certain item was originally, and how much I paid for it. And how much money I saved, and how I was able to use that "saved" money to buy something else!

Before Christmas, I received one of those postcards from some organization offering to pick up my unwanted stuff. I've been going through the house bagging up stuff for collection next week. And so much of it is stuff--why do we need all of this crap?

My daughters received American Girl dolls for Christmas. They're pretty expensive, but I like how they represent different time periods in American history. Each girl also has a series of books (also available for purchase!), and we've checked out several from the library in the last few weeks. Caitlin received the Molly doll--she's from 1944, and her father is serving in England (he's a doctor--they'd never have someone in actual combat *eye roll*). Anyway, Molly's family has to make do often--things are scarce, food is rationed. I've been looking through some of Molly's stories. She and the girl from the Depression (her name is Kit) interest me because they came from a time when we all pretty much had to make do with less.

Last Friday, I drove Caroline and a classmate of hers to their Brownie meeting. The classmate has an older sister, and this classmate proceeded to tell Caroline all about how she needed to watch Zoey 101 tonight and how Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant and she's only 16. I was cringeing in the driver's seat. Caroline has no idea who Jamie Lynn Spears is, and probably had no idea that mommies can be 16. She certainly has no idea about how babies are made. And I'd like to keep it that way for a few more years, thank you very much! I told Rob about it. He was not happy either.

I decided to try some counter-programming. On Saturday night, I broke out Little House on the Prairie. Caroline received it for Christmas last year, but we hadn't really watched it. This year, all the kids were into it. They watched two episodes in a row and were begging to watch another one. That's more like it. Now the girls want me to read the books to them--see, they were confused when I explained that Molly and Felicity (their American girls) were not real people, and they were thrilled to learn that Laura Ingalls was a real person.

My little brain has been busy mulling all of this over and wondering how to act on my thoughts. Where to begin? How to really simplify? And what exactly do I mean by simplify? How do we convince ourselves that we really need less? I'll keep you posted as I come up with strategies and solutions...and I'm always open to ideas. Happy New Year!

Back to the grind

It's Thursday night already--now that the kids are back in school, the clock has picked up speed again. Yesterday was their first day back and boy, was it a doozie. Wednesdays are always crazy, what with the two dance classes. I had to set the alarm so we'd be up at a decent time. Nobody in the house has seen seven a.m. since Christmas day! We've all been sleeping until after eight--a minor miracle. The last couple of mornings have been rough.

I took down all the Christmas decorations today. Now the house looks naked, like when I was in school and the teachers took down all the classroom stuff at the end of the year. Of course, the stores are all fully stocked with Valentine's Day goodies already, so we could go ahead and buy candy for the next holiday! It's ridiculous!

Maybe over the weekend I'll have time to ruminate on my lack of resolutions...or maybe I'll get out to one of those sustainable farms I've been looking into!

Happy New Year!