Ready for a Comeback?

It's been over two years since I have posted to this blog. The other day I decided to revisit it and read through some of my old posts. They reminded me of some of the things I have learned along the way as a parent. Some of the posts were good reminders for me of the kind of parent I want to be.

The last time I posted was about a week before my sweet mother-in-law, Juli, passed away. The past couple of years since then have been tough, partly because of Juli's death and partly because of the other stuff life has thrown at us. I have learned that I am a resilient and loyal person. I have also renewed and deepened my relationship with God.

I recently read Leap Over a Wall, by Eugene Peterson, about the life of King David. In the book Peterson talks about the time David spent in exile before becoming king, and how he learned to see the beauty in the wilderness. That is something I am striving to do in my life--see the bright spots and soak them up. That is part of why I think I would like to try returning to writing on this blog again,

so I can look back and see the beauty in the wilderness that is parenting.

Since August of 2010, I have written a community news blog for my neighborhood (www.spokanesouthie.com). It was gratifying to watch it grow in popularity and receive thousands of page views every month, something I have never come close to here on Mommies Think Too. I realized in going back through my old posts that the value in this blog is not how many people read it, but how it helps me to articulate my feelings about parenting and the things in life that matter to me.

I'm not promising anything, but I hope to be posting here more regularly.

Fatty Thighs Exposed!

The YMCA is a great outlet for our family, especially during Spokane's frigid winters.   They have a gym,   workout equipment, fitness classes, a family game room, free childcare and three pools.  The kids love it there and Jeff and I enjoy having a place for all of us to burn off some steam.

The only thing I really dislike about the Y is running into neighbors and accquaintances in my swimsuit.  I find myself being forced to stop and chat with people that I would normally see while walking the kids to school or bump into at the post office while my big, white thighs are on display for all the world to see. 

The flip side to that is that I also have to see people I know bare it all too, which may seem like it would ease my discomfort, but I don't know that I want to know about my neighor's tattoos.  Seeing strangers butt-naked in the communal showers in the locker room is one thing, but seeing your pediatrician bare it all is something quite different.  Plus I have a four-year-old that says whatever she thinks, such as "Mommy, that lady has a fat tummy!"

What the Game of Life Has Taught My Son

Last week we went shopping for some good old-fashioned family board games.  Winter is lasting forever and the kids, particularly Sammy, needed a deterrant from the Wii.  We came home with the Game of Life and Sorry Sliders. 

I never played the Game of Life as a kid and was shocked to find out that sprinkled throughout the game are squares that allow you to sue a player of your choice for $100,000.  There are also squares called "Spin to Win" that allow you to place a bet on the number of your choice and spin the wheel.  If it lands on the  number you bet on, you double your money. 

So there you have it, suing and gambling.  The only upside is that Sammy also learned that investing money in a house means that you have that asset later to sell when you want to retire.  Just what every 7-year-old needs to know about life, right?

P.S. Sorry Sliders is a fun game that preschoolers can play but is still entertaining for older kids and adults.

Memorial Day 2010---A Poem!

By Jeff Gish (my husband)

The doppler radar

forecasted rain

but we chose not to listen

...bring on the pain!

The rain came around

but we got a little sun

and finally our bikes' cranks

got pedaled, pushed & spun

We saw some wildlife...

an inquisitive chipmunk fellow

most interesting however,

was a spider clad in yellow

We enjoyed nature's beauty

we saw the towns & farms

we went coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs

we robbed mallows from "Junky Charms"

Bought some wet wood

from the ranger station

the billows of smoke at our camp

could have covered a small nation

Abby loved her bike trailer rides

and super book adventures

luckily her top bunk fall

didn't leave her with dentures

Sammy got to pee in the woods

as all boys like to do

as much as playing in the fire

or camping without shoes

Mom and Dad smiled more than not

slowing life down and grasping all we've got

It's one of our favorite getaways

to visit Heyburn Cabin

we hope you all relax and have

as much fun as we are havin'

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Jeff wrote this poem in the cabin journal before we packed up and went home after our stay over the long weekend. I am a little late in getting it posted, but still wanted to share it. If you want to read more of Jeff's writing, you can visit his blog about the moving industry.

Mom Friends

Often I think that my friendships with other women depend not on whether we have things in common or enjoy eachother's company but on whether or not we have children that play compatibly. Most of my get-togethers with other women are playdates for our children. This isn't to say that I don't love my mom friends, I do, but I wonder about the other women I have missed the chance to get to know because our kids weren't the right ages to play together or didn't seem to hit it off.

I also worry about what will happen to my friendships with other moms as our kids grow and go in different directions. It has already happened with a few friends that had children in Sammy's preschool. Once our kids went to kindergarten at different schools and we didn't see each other every week, it became difficult to maintain those friendships. I suppose that is the natural way of things--life changes and people move on and new people come in to fill the gaps.

Jeff and I have two couples that we have been friends with for a long time, one set since college and the other since we were new parents together. We don't live near either couple anymore, but we still make an effort to stay in touch (and I mean more than just on facebook) and see each other when we can. Sometimes our kids get along with their kids and sometimes they don't, but that doesn't change the adults' friendships. Somehow I think we'll always be friends with those people--we'll be going on senior cruises with them and talking about our hip problems with each other. I hope some of my mom friends will make it into that category of forever friends--that our connections remain even when our circumstances change.

Overscheduled Mom

I heard on the news quite awhile back about a study that said parents are among the angriest people in America and I believe it. I bet it is especially true for moms like me that stupidly sign their kids up for every activity under the sun and spend their week ferrying their kids between school, soccer practice, Spanish class, swim lessons, etc. At least I don't have a mini-van or a pair of "Mom Jeans" because then I would truly have to admit that my life is all about my kids and not much else.

I know my anger comes not from the fact that I spend so much time in the car, but the effort it takes to get in the car. Abby hates transitions and if I don't plan it out just right, she will have a fit about getting her hair combed or her jacket on or about which snack I packed--anything you can think of. Sammy, who is getting close to 7-years-old, has to be told twenty-five times to get his shoes on, find a jacket, etc. He is always off setting up a lego scene or chasing the cat when it's time to be going out the door. And I am willing to bet that's where most parents' anger comes from--trying to get little people to do things that they don't necessarily want to do at that moment. It's the coersion that is so stressful and makes me yell and wish that I could use the f-word. I have discussed this with my husband and he says my job is not that different from his--the people are just bigger where he works (he oversees about 30 employees).

I could say screw all this running around and just throw them outside to play. I think that is what mothers in previous generations did most of the time, right? (Which reminds me to recommend Free Range Kids to anyone who is afraid to send their kids outside by themselves or allow them to do any number of things that we were allowed to do as kids.) The only problem is that my kids really do seem to enjoy the activities they are in and benefit from them a great deal, it's just the getting ready that's too dull for words in their minds. In fact there was a study done by Sandra Hoefferth of the University of Maryland Population Research Center that said that kids are not stressed by being involved in lots of activities, it's just the parents that are stressed. The study goes on to say that kids that are not in any extra-curricular activities are actually at the most risk for being withdrawn and not performing as well in school as their peers (the study was highlighted in the Washington Post awhile back but is unfortunately not available online for free).

Summer is just around the corner, so there is relief in sight. I can sit back and just enjoy lazy days at the pool or the park with the kids....except I will have to wrestle them both to the ground to apply sunscreen to their fair little bodies before we ever venture out of the house...at least crocs just slip on!

A Carnival, Science Night, 2 Fieldtrips, a Kitten...

...and a few other things we have been up to this spring:

The PTG at Sammy's school put on an awesome carnival. There were tons of games, face painting, snow cones, cotton candy...you name it, they had it.

Abby's school had another great Science Night with hands-on projects galore!

Sammy has an amazing kindergarten teacher that does tons of science with the kids. The class has been studying pond life, so they walked down to a pond near the school and met with a former high school and college biology teacher to do some real world research.

Abby's co-op preschool visited a farm after a unit about farm animals. Besides being home to lots of cute critters, this farm also has a dairy where they pasteurize and bottle their own milk to sell to local stores.

Meet Socks, the newest member of our family. Abby's teacher was a foster parent to a pregnant cat from the Humane Society. We adopted one of the kittens so the kids could have a pet of their own. Our other cat, Nilla, is quite old and has never been too enthused about playing with Sammy & Abby.

In April we made two trips--one to Seattle and one to Yakima. Unfortunately we did not have the memory card in the camera when we went to Seattle so we have no pictures of our trip to the top of the Space Needle. In Yakima Sammy got to ride the go-cart that my brother built for my nephew.

Return to the Blogosphere

So, I have been absent from blogland for awhile. I have been prompted to return mostly because I'm helping host another swap over at http://www.littlepeopleswap.blogspot.com/ with my friend Michelle (aka Meg). We always try to encourage participants to get to know eachother by visiting and commenting on one another's blogs, so I figure I better return to my blog, at least for the duration of the swap.

Also, I miss blogging. I gave it up because I wanted to focus on finishing some children's stories I have been working on and submit them to publishers. I still haven't finished them, so I can't blame it on blogging, considering it has been nine months since my last post and I am nowhere near submitting anything to publishers.

Maybe it would be best to re-enter blogland by giving a brief update on what I have been up to in the last nine months. My Family's Top 10 Highlights of the Last 9 Months:


1) We moved to a new house. We are still on Spokane's southill, but in a different neighborhood with what we feel are better schools. We rented out our other house, so now we get the joy of being landlords--not the funnest thing in the world, but not the worst either.

2) Abby started talking up storm! No speech therapy for her, but still doing the PT.

3) Sammy finished preschool and is gearing up for kindergarten. He is turning six in a few weeks and is busy planning his party. He wants it to include capture the flag.

4) We tore down our garage at our new house in preparation for building a new one (bigger and not leaning precariously to one side).


5) I got asked to be an officer on the board at Abby's (formerly Sammy's) co-op preschool next year. I will be the secretary and I feel honored to have my dedication recognized.

6) Jeff and I celebrated our 10th anniversary in May. We marked the occassion with our first ever weekend away from the kids.

7) I have a new nephew. My sister-in-law Joanna just gave birth to a beautiful little boy--Carter John. He is perfect! Yet I have no desire for more of my own. I am perfectly happy to look at him and hold him and let his parents do all the work!

8) I have read several great books with my book club and had lots of fun discussing them over wine. The Glass Castle tops the list.

9) Our business is surviving this economy! We launched a new website over the winter and I wrote most of the copy (another reason for not blogging). If you are moving anytime soon or just want to read some really captivating content on the moving industy, check it out: http://www.actionallied.com/.


10) Jeff and his team won the Portland Street Jam 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament for their division last weekend. I was very proud of him and his team.

If anyone is out there and reading this, leave me a comment and tell me your top items of the last 9 months. You would think I was pregnant with all the references to 9 months (see number 7 if you think I am hinting at anything).

Stay tuned, more to come soon........

Children's Book Review: My Dog is as Smelly as Dirty Sock & Found Object Collage Art

The other day my son happened upon the book My Dog is as Smelly as Dirty Socks at the library. It is told from the perspective of a little girl who is asked to draw a picture of her family but doesn't feel that pen and ink quite do her family members justice. Instead she decides to use found objects to create collage-like portraits of them that show their personalities. For example, she uses a small wooden spinning-top for her dad's nose because he is fun loving. The book inspired my kids and I to create our own collage faces from a bunch of miscellaneous stuff in our craft cabinet that I just knew we would have a use for SOMEDAY.

Sammy made this one--it's me!

I helped Abby create this self-portrait. Since she is only two, I spread glue for the hair and shirt and gave her sequins and old puzzle pieces to stick on. She also selected the googly eyes and stuck them on.

Sammy and I worked together to make this one of Jeff. It is the only one where we really concentrated on making the objects match the subject's personality. His eyes are number 40 because that was his number when he played high school basketball, and basketball is still one of his favorite hobbies. We used a map for his shirt because he used to be a social studies teacher and enjoys studying maps. The bell nose is because he is musical and is teaching himself to play the guitar.


I made this one of Sammy.

We really got in the collage making mood. The animal one was a collaboration between Sammy and me. Some of the cutouts are from an old calendar created by the same people who made How Are You Peeling, another really fun children's book. The final one was all Sammy's doing.

Boys and (Violent) Toys

After Sammy's swim lesson yesterday, I decided to pop into Target and buy some diapers and cleaning products. I thought that since we were there, it would be a good idea to peruse the toy aisles and get an idea of what the kids might like for Christmas--big mistake! First of all, I guess I didn't explain thoroughly enough that I wouldn't actually be buying any toys (apparently I needed to repeat it multiple times). Second, every toy for little boys had some sort of weapon attached to it. The one exception being the cars, which might explain why a certain friend of my son's doesn't seem to own any other toys other than cars.

Even most of the Playmobil sets, which I know Sammy really likes, were trying too hard to be realistic (pirates with guns and swords, knights with swords, etc.). Sammy got the Playmobil firefighter for his birthday and loved it so much that he bought the policeman set with some of his birthday money. I didn't pay too much attention to the accessories it came with until we got home and realized that along with the laptop computer, walkie-talkie and flashlight, there were two guns.

I'm thinking maybe Sammy won't get any toys for Christmas. He already owns a plethora of different building toys--legos, tinkertoys, wooden blocks, magnetics (all of which I consider good investsments, by the way). He also has a bucketful of cars, an extensive wooden train set, and a huge collection of dinosaurs (a favorite of his for two plus years now). Beyond all that, what could a boy wish for? However, I do want to get him gifts for Christmas, but what?

Sammy told me that if I buy him the pirate Playmobil set he will throw out the guns, but still wants to keep the swords. I have a done a little reading on the web and have found that while many experts will say that no violent play or toys should ever be allowed, many others believe the context and pervasiveness should be taken into consideration and not all violent play is necessarily bad. For instance, if children are pretending to be a policeman or knight or something of that variety, it is more acceptable than if they were pretending to be say a drug dealer or gangster that they saw portrayed on adult tv shows/movies. So maybe I could get the Playmobil pirates afterall--the only probably is whenever I see him play in a violent way, even when he is just making his dinosaurs attach eachother, I get a pit in the bottom of my stomach. Here are links to a few of the article I found, should anyone be interested:

Violent Toys and Their Effect on Children

Violent Toys

Why is it that violent toys are only targeted at little boys, while the worst that is aimed at little girls is Bratz? Are the messages sent to little girls through toys just as harmful? For example, that appearance is paramount (think Barbie) and they need to be rescued by men (Disney Princesses)? I can worry about that some other year, I guess. Abby is only two and she is getting a play kitchen for Christmas.

Fun Fall Crafts & More Fall Pics

First, Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband, Jeff!

Now, is that not the biggest leaf you have ever seen? On Wednesdays, my son gets picked up for preschool by another co-op mom and friend of mine. When she brought him home last week, he had a fistful of these giant leaves. Apparently, my friend's mother-in-law has a tree in her yard that does not usually grow in this part of the state.

I wish I coud take credit for the idea of making the leaf man, but my friend suggested it when I was wondering out loud what we could do with Sammy's booty of leaves. We used hot glue to attach the leaves to a piece of cardboard that I had been saving forever because I knew it would come in handy for an art project someday (see, sometimes it pays to be a pack rat). We used smaller leaves for the mouth and nose and tiny pinecones for the eyes. By the way, I pulled out the hole punch to attach the yarn to hang our creation from the banister and ever since Sammy has spent a lot of time entertaining himself by punching holes in construction paper. This might be a boy thing--he used to love cutting paper up into tiny pieces and I know other moms who said their boys do the same thing.


This turkey craft is pretty self-explanatory. The key is to find a good pinecone that will sit down properly. Again, not my idea--Sammy made one in co-op last year.


These final pictures are from our last bike ride of the year. It was one of the best and most scenic rides we have ever gone on, so I guess it was good one to end on.

Unattended Child In Cars Laws

After I finished my post last night, I went and read up on "unattended kids in cars" laws to see what might have happened to me if the aforementioned busybody actually used the cell phone she was wielding threateningly (okay, just holding in her hand). The laws in Washington state that a child under 16 years of age may not be left in a running car and a child under 12 years of age may not be left in an unattended car in front of a tavern or other establishment that serves liquor. So I would have been safe had the police been called seeing as I didn't leave the car running nor was I drinking my lunch. Washington's laws seem to me the most lenient out of all the fourteen states that have such laws on the books, but I think that I would have actually been okay in any state since my children weren't technically unattended since I could see them out the window of the restaurant. And now I will let this issue die and never speak of it again.

In My Face

I feel like as a whole American parents live with a great deal of fear about all the terrible things that could happen to our children. There are a few books out there that touch on how the media creates fear by sensationalizing the rare instances where a child is abducted by a stranger or attacked by a shark or whatever (Freakonomics, The Mommy Myth, The Culture of Fear). I am as guilty of falling into the trap of false fear as anyone--I have an alarm system in my home so that I can sleep at night knowing my son is sleeping on a different level of the house from me. But when I leave my children in my car for five minutes outside of Subway, while I grab a quick sandwich for my son to eat in between his sister's physical therapy and the start of his preschool, I don't expect to be humiliated by some busybody barging into the store demanding to know if anyone has a white car. "You left your children in the car?!" she said after I affirmed that I had a white car. "Yeah, I'm keeping an eye on them (I could see my car out the window and had been watching them nearly the whole time I was in line) and I'm only gonna be in here for five minutes I replied," and hastily paid for my sandwich, only to find her standing by my car outside. As if I was going to sit down and enjoy a leisurely lunch while my kids sat starving in the car. I should add that it was a cool fall day and it was neither too hot for them to get heat stroke nor too cold for them to devlop hypothermia. I would never leave my children in the heat or the cold, and I would never leave them in a car where I couldn't see them out the window of whatever place of business I was in for that matter, but even if I couldn't see them out the window, what did that busybody think was going to happen? Does she believe that there are child abuductors on every corner? And that one was going to break into my car in broad daylight in a busy shopping area and pull my children screaming from the car? Did she think they might spontaneously combust?

Maybe I am the one that is off base here, maybe I should be thankful that there are people like that watching out for children. But I don't think it was the fact that she was concerned that bothered me, I think it was her approach. She acted like it was a life or death situation and that I needed to be reprimanded for my supposed offense. If I saw two children in a car unattended and felt concern for them, I think I would just keep and eye on them and see if their parent didn't return in a reasonable amount of time. If that woman would have waited two minutes, I would have been back to my car and she could have seen for herself that I was not neglecting or abandoning my children.

Mothers put enough guilt on themselves everyday: I'm not giving them enough one-on-one attention, I shouldn't have let them eat so much Halloween candy, I should have gotten up earlier so I would be rushed and grouchy with them, I shouldn't swear in front of them or argue with their father, etc, etc, etc! We sure as heck don't need it heaped on us from total strangers.

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In other news: I voted for McCain, because as much as I wanted to say that I cast my vote for our first president of color, I just couldn't come to terms with Obama's socialist policies. I'm afraid of what will happen to our country with such a liberal president and a democratic congress. I think it is best for everyone when there is some give and take in government and compromises reached, but I fear that Obama will get a green light to do whatever he wants. However, I am proud to see a person of color electeed to the oval office and I hope that I will see a woman reach the same heights in my lifetime.

Today's weather: cloudy and raining hyperactive kids--whatever am I going to do this winter? I fear I will be drinking a lot of Orange Juliases while my children play on the indoor playground at the mall.

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Overheard in my backseat:

Sammy's friend: Babies only drink milk, they don't eat hard foods.

Sammy: Yeah, that's kind of weird. They get their milk from right here.

Friend: Yeah, those are called breastes.

My Most Favorite Season of All

Where Were You When?

I was just a kid whent the Berlin Wall was torn down, but I remember my dad calling me into the living room and making me watch it on TV with him because he said it was going to be one of the most historic moments of our time or something like that. I also remember my grandmother talking about how everyone of her generation remembered where they were the day JFK was killed. I don't remember anything else about what I was doing the day the Berlin Wall started coming down, but I can tell you more about what I did on 9/11 than almost any other day in my life, except maybe my wedding day and the days my children were born.

Intersting that the events that seem to shape our country's history and identity are usually catastrophic, while the events that have shaped my personal history tend to be cause for celebration. Maybe it is not like that for everyone, I haven't experienced a lot of loss in my life, aside from my parents' divorce. I suppose as I get older, that may change.

I do hope that this recent crash of the housing market and downturn of the economy will not be one of the events that I look back on as shaping my life or our country's history. I desperately want for it to be a temporary setback, a bump in the road that gets quickly flattened out.

When I was in high school, I had to interview someone and write a report on it (it may have been for freshmen english, but I can't say for sure). I chose to interview my great-grandmother about what she could recall about the Great Depression. She's 96 now, so she must have been around 82-years-old at the time, but she clearly remembered a time when her and her family had to stay in bed under the covers because they didn't have any heat or any food either. Her grandmother finally came and brought them something to eat--potatoes, I believe.

I'm not saying any of this to scare anyone or because I really believe we are about to play out the sequel to the Great Depression or anything like, but I do think that the next president we choose will be key in determing how this period of time goes down in history. Will it be a sidenote or will it demand its own chapter?

I watched the debate last night and I'm still not sure who I am going to vote for. I like Obama, I think change would be good for our country, but I don't know if I'm ready for that radical of change--I'm not prepared to become a socialist. However, John Mc Cain's plan to buy up all these mortgages that are in default and renegotiate them seems ludicrous! I don't think our country can afford to buy up another $300 billion in bad debt on top of the $700 billion we already have. In fact, just as TIME magazine pointed out about the bailout, John Mc Cain's new plan is a pretty socialist thing to do too. Thinking about it is starting to make me a little apathetic--I mean either one has got to be better than George Bush, right?

I hate being apathetic--I'll let you know how I feel after the next debate.

Teaching Them the Classics

It all started with Jeff desperately wanting to spend at least part of the weekend vegging on the couch. Not an easy task with two kids heavily demanding his attention whenever he is home. His only defense was to get a movie that they could watch while snuggling with daddy on the couch and eating bowls of homemade popcorn. So mom was dispatched to the video store where I ended up buying the Goonies. Sammy was totally into it, even though he was a little scared (in a good, fun way). Abby was totally into the popcorn, so it worked out well.

About a month later, Sammy had a cousin spend the night and we decided it was time to continue our course in classic '80s movies, so it was back to the video store for The Never Ending Story. This time we blew up the air mattress for the kids (which is almost as good as having a bounce house in your living room) and made popcorn, of course. Jeff and I had a good time taking a trip down memory lane and it was good to see the kids enjoy the movie even though all the special effects were really bad. Afterwards we had a scholarly discussion about our favorite parts of the movie, which character we would want to be, etc.

Up next on our syllabus:

• 
  
  The Princess Bride


• 
  
  The Labyrinth


• 
  
  Honey, I Shrunk the Kids

Not To Be Outdone By His Little Sister

Sammy has recently reached what I would consider a developmental milestone, which is drawing figures that actually look like something versus the abstract drawings he was making only a week or so ago.

These are bats if you couldn't tell. Some are flying and some are hanging upsidedown from an invisible tree. Oh, crap, I think the picture is upside down because all the pumpkins are in the sky and not on the ground like he drew them. Oh, well...

This one is two trees and two ghosts with a row of pumpkins. Do you notice a theme here?

This is exciting for me because I love doing art projects with kids and this has opened up a lot of possibilities for us. It also reaffirms my belief that as much as possible you should let your kids develop at their own pace and not push them too much. Drawing has come quite naturally to Sammy and he really loves doing it so far, but I could see it being something stressful and not fun if I had pushed him into it.
Which gets me thinking about how much our current school system scares the daylights out of me. And how if I could fix the lottery in our school district so that my children were guaranteed a spot in the montessori program, I totally would. To quote Angela from The Office last night, "I have a very nice comforter and very soft pillows and I usually read a few chapters from a book--that's how I sleep at night!"

Happy Fall and Here's to "Being in the Moment"

Well, Monday was the first day of fall, and I did promise to return to more regular blogging once the summer was over. There have been some changes around our house recently. The most exciting is that my daughter, Abby, is now officially a walker!!!!! Yes, that really did deserve five exclamation points. She started taking her first steps in late July, but like everything with her, really took her time getting comfortable and didn't really start taking off until a few weeks ago, shortly after her second birthday. She had an Abby-Cadabby party, by the way. I am not really into anything with character plastered on it, but the name got me. My son, Sammy, turned five right after his sister and feels so big. He had his first party where we invited friends from preschool.

The other change around our house has been more subtle, but has really contributed to more of a feeling of peace and contentment in our home. Over a year ago my friend, Michelle, and I read a book together called Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves. The parenting philosophy advocated by the book was a little too soft for my style overall, but I did take some good things away from it, especially where the author encouraged parents to "be in the moment with their children." Or in other words, to not be thinking and/or stressing about what else they could be/should be doing when they are supposedly paying attention to their child. The author said if you can't stop thinking about the weeds that need pulled in the garden, then go take care of what needs doing, so that you can enjoy your time with your child. That really struck a chord with me, because I am one of those people who lives inside my head way too much and sometimes feel myself acting irritated with my children when they interrupt my thoughts. So, I had been trying to "be in the moment" on and off for close to a year, with little success. Then this summer I read another book, a novel this time, called The Cure for a Modern Life. It talked about living in the present and even said that might be the key to real happiness. The concept was also mentioned in Practically Perfect. Then Michelle started talking about another book, Beyond the Rainbow Bridge, where being in the moment and focusing on the task at hand is emphasized. So there are four sources where I have heard about this concept. My husband, Jeff, says that if you hear something from three sources, or can triangulate it, then it is usually true. Well, I have just quadragulated this ( and created a new word:)!

However, reading about something in a book and feeling like it is probably a good thing to do and actually putting it into practice are two different things. I have been working on doing it more, though, and have noticed myself having more fun with my kids and being more tuned in to them. When I am tuned into them I can experience joy and wonder through their fresh little eyes and hearts. There are two reasons I think I have been able to do this more. One, Michelle is trying to do it too, and having a partner in crime always makes things more doable. Two, I have gotten to know some other really great moms locally that have shown me that "just being a mom" is a great job to have. One of them, my friend, Michele (different Michele, notice the one l), works part time at a big corporation, but I hardly know what she does there (and I have asked) because she is so focused on being a mom when she is not at work, that she hardly even wants to talk about it. She says that her other job is so secondary to being a mom. I love that! I think having a community of moms around has made me not feel so isolated and helped me to feel that what I am choosing is perfectly acceptable and even desirable to more people than just me. I am not the only stay-at-home mom that I know anymore!

Surprisingly, I am not the only one in our household practicing being in the moment. Jeff has been doing it too, although I doubt he would call it that. But he has been trying to let work go and enjoy his time with his family when he is home. He has seemed a lot more happy lately and has been more like the fun person I know he is deep down than he has been in awhile. I also don't ask him "how was work?" anymore, because really he doesn't want to talk about it when he is not there, either.

I will leave you with a picture of my little girly-girl, pushing her doll stroller around:

Wall-e Review: Moses meets Wal-Mart

Going to the movie theater is a big deal in our house--we consider it a luxury or a special occassion. So the whole family was really pumped when we went to see Wall-e last night. My son was fascinated throughout. My husband and I were both intrigued by the social commentary that was going on. In the beginning of the movie you find out that planet earth was at one time taken over by one corporation, Buy-n-Large, that not only provided for every consumer need from electronics & groceries to gasoline & banks, but also was the reigning worldwide government. Obviously the similarities to Wal-Mart are undeniable, but it also sort of reminded me of the book of Revelation where one power rules the earth. Except in Wall-e all the humans escape earth via cruise spaceships that take them on what is supposed to be a five year vacation while the earth is cleaned up by droids, but it turns into a 700 year exile. Maybe it is a wierd combination of Revelation and Exodus, but heaven is place that humans go to become fatter and stupider and the promised land is a garbage dump.

After watching the movie, I read a few reviews on-line and was surprised to find that many critics thought the plot was lacking and that the only great thing about the film was the animation. I was also surprised that the creator said he had no agenda or message concerning taking care of the planet--please.

I don't normally review movies on my blog, but thought this one was worth mentioning and also worth watching with your kids. I like movies that are smart and unique. The fact that the girl got to rescue the boy in the end was pretty cool too :)

Simple Pleasures

Here is my beautiful, blonde-haired boy thoroughly enjoying himself by pushing his bubble mower through the grass while the sprinklers were going. He was soaking wet and smiling from ear to ear by the time he was done. I sat watching him and what I ended up wishing was that he will always find this much pleasure in doing things he loves throughout his life. I hope that his love of learning continues through elementary and high school and into college and that he finds joy in studying subjects that fascinate him. I want him to find sports or activities that he does purely for enjoyment. I also hope that he will still find pleasure in the simple things, like a summer evening or a sunset or the smile on his child's face.