Watching a rerun of an Oprah episode last week, my son informed me that I should buy that cookbook full of recipes whose premise involves sneaking vegetable purees into just about everything you cook for your kids.
As he said to me, "You know Mummy, that's a good idea because I hate vegetables too!"
Wisdom speaks at age 10.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Pocketful of Sunshine
We have friends in Pennsylvania (Rich & JoAnn and daughter Alyssa; Doug & Gina and twins Maria & Kristin) who we get to see two or three times a year and at the end of each too-short visit it strikes us yet again how very much we love them and how much we miss them because they are so damn far away.
They are truly wonderful, loving, kind, generous and the most fun-loving couples (and their kids) you'll ever meet. And because I can be selfish and as has been previously indicated have a capacity to hoard this is not an invitation for you to meet them because they are ours. As in not yours. And I'm not sharing. I digress.
Each year there is a summer song that all the men sing, screech, belch, bellow with great gusto (I swear it's not the amount of alcohol we consume together, although the argument could be made that that certainly increases the volume at which they sing). The thing that fills my heart with such joy it is near to bursting are the genuine smiles and happiness they just naturally exude from every pore.
Just being around them, laughing, remembering something funny that happened, the exuberant stories told around the campfire, the LOVE that soars through them is enough to dissipate a bad mood like a cloudy sky beneath a ray of bright warm sunshine.
All I have to do is close my eyes and I can feel their friendship and encouragement and support from many miles away. They may not realize it, but when days are long and hard they are my Pocketful of Sunshine and I treasure them for it.
They are truly wonderful, loving, kind, generous and the most fun-loving couples (and their kids) you'll ever meet. And because I can be selfish and as has been previously indicated have a capacity to hoard this is not an invitation for you to meet them because they are ours. As in not yours. And I'm not sharing. I digress.
Each year there is a summer song that all the men sing, screech, belch, bellow with great gusto (I swear it's not the amount of alcohol we consume together, although the argument could be made that that certainly increases the volume at which they sing). The thing that fills my heart with such joy it is near to bursting are the genuine smiles and happiness they just naturally exude from every pore.
Just being around them, laughing, remembering something funny that happened, the exuberant stories told around the campfire, the LOVE that soars through them is enough to dissipate a bad mood like a cloudy sky beneath a ray of bright warm sunshine.
All I have to do is close my eyes and I can feel their friendship and encouragement and support from many miles away. They may not realize it, but when days are long and hard they are my Pocketful of Sunshine and I treasure them for it.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Lions and Tigers and Bears, OH MY
I decided to take the kids to the zoo yesterday for one or two reasons.
1. If I didn't get them out of the house for a little while to do something fun, they were going to rip each other apart from limb to limb.
2. If I didn't get them out of the house for a little while to do something fun, I was going to rip them apart from limb to limb.
In a car trip that felt like it lasted 2 hours but in reality was only 20 minutes long, my son was very excited to be there, and little sister was happy too although she couldn't figure out what the fuss was all about.
We wandered around in the extreme heat and humidity and they fed goats and donkeys and baboons and capuchin monkeys. We saw silver and red foxes and white tigers and zebras and lynx and coyotes and timber wolves...and as is the case every single time we go, the lions and bears were hiding in the shade somewhere. I pictured them sitting back in their dens, clinking their bottles of ice cold beer together and laughing hysterically at all the humans who'd paid much money to see them and yet, did not because they were smart enough to do what the people were not - which was to GET THE HELL OUT OF THE SUN AND HAVE AN ICE COLD DRINK.
After a few hours and a couple of pounds of sweat had dripped off me and into places that I didn't know sweat could go, I decided it was time to go home. At that point, I felt sick to my stomach from the humidity and being the pale freckle faced individual that I am, could not take one more minute without air conditioning blowing directly on me. And for the uninitiated, air conditioning does not smell like sour animal piss and feces.
In the car, and even though my son was talking a mile a minute about the different species of monkeys we'd seen, it was obvious that he was going to fall asleep within moments, and my daughter was asleep before we left the parking lot.
And me? As soon as we got home, I headed for my own cave in the cool basement, frosty bottle of beer in hand and toasted those bastard lions and bears.
They had the right idea all along.
1. If I didn't get them out of the house for a little while to do something fun, they were going to rip each other apart from limb to limb.
2. If I didn't get them out of the house for a little while to do something fun, I was going to rip them apart from limb to limb.
In a car trip that felt like it lasted 2 hours but in reality was only 20 minutes long, my son was very excited to be there, and little sister was happy too although she couldn't figure out what the fuss was all about.
We wandered around in the extreme heat and humidity and they fed goats and donkeys and baboons and capuchin monkeys. We saw silver and red foxes and white tigers and zebras and lynx and coyotes and timber wolves...and as is the case every single time we go, the lions and bears were hiding in the shade somewhere. I pictured them sitting back in their dens, clinking their bottles of ice cold beer together and laughing hysterically at all the humans who'd paid much money to see them and yet, did not because they were smart enough to do what the people were not - which was to GET THE HELL OUT OF THE SUN AND HAVE AN ICE COLD DRINK.
After a few hours and a couple of pounds of sweat had dripped off me and into places that I didn't know sweat could go, I decided it was time to go home. At that point, I felt sick to my stomach from the humidity and being the pale freckle faced individual that I am, could not take one more minute without air conditioning blowing directly on me. And for the uninitiated, air conditioning does not smell like sour animal piss and feces.
In the car, and even though my son was talking a mile a minute about the different species of monkeys we'd seen, it was obvious that he was going to fall asleep within moments, and my daughter was asleep before we left the parking lot.
And me? As soon as we got home, I headed for my own cave in the cool basement, frosty bottle of beer in hand and toasted those bastard lions and bears.
They had the right idea all along.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Not a morning girl
This morning we had to wake the little sleepyhead up and she takes after her mother in that she is, shall we say, a crusty, grumpy, don't look at me until I've had a cup of coffee in my sippy cup kinda gal.
Daddy wanted to snuggle with her, but at first she was having none of it and when he asked her, "Are you Daddy's girl?" She replied with a very firm, "NO. Mummy girl."
I admit to feeling a certain smug satisfaction with her answer considering she is her father's daughter in every other way!
Daddy wanted to snuggle with her, but at first she was having none of it and when he asked her, "Are you Daddy's girl?" She replied with a very firm, "NO. Mummy girl."
I admit to feeling a certain smug satisfaction with her answer considering she is her father's daughter in every other way!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Getting older can just suck it
My knee is still shot from a torn ligament.
My feet hurt and it could be plantar something or other that requires orthotics.
I color my grey hair because I'm just vain enough.
I'm getting my lipids checked. As in cholesterol levels.
And here I thought lipids was just a fancy description for "all you can eat buffets".
My feet hurt and it could be plantar something or other that requires orthotics.
I color my grey hair because I'm just vain enough.
I'm getting my lipids checked. As in cholesterol levels.
And here I thought lipids was just a fancy description for "all you can eat buffets".
Friday, June 20, 2008
Happy Friday!
We're going bowling this afternoon and then off to a bbq at the very fancy home of one of the vice presidents. It will be fun, in part because it's always awkwardly hilarious to see the "bosses" get smashed and sing karaoke off-key and pretend that they are just like us. Which we are very aware they are so NOT.
I'm also happy because in only 4-and-a-half-work-days I will be on a month-long vacation during which I can sleep in (to 7:15 a.m.), read a book (more than 2 sentences in a row), and try to sit still (for more than 3 minutes at a time).
I also plan to drink vodka and Crystal Light in enormous quantities while sitting lakeside, just because I can.
I'm also happy because in only 4-and-a-half-work-days I will be on a month-long vacation during which I can sleep in (to 7:15 a.m.), read a book (more than 2 sentences in a row), and try to sit still (for more than 3 minutes at a time).
I also plan to drink vodka and Crystal Light in enormous quantities while sitting lakeside, just because I can.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Last Days
We go through the day to day stuff of parenting and hours and weeks seem unending as kids drive you insane with questions, OH THE QUESTIONS, and a minute feels several hours long and you wish for peace and quiet and bathroom time all to yourself because you can't see straight for all the babble coming at you from every direction.
Today is his last day of school and he'll be starting grade 6 this fall. How the hell did this happen? I blink and realize that my baby boy will soon be finished elementary school and I'll blink again and he'll be getting married or having a baby. Someone please explain how we can send a robot to Mars but we haven't figured out how to delay time?
I'm not ready. I want to keep him at this age because he still needs me to guide him between right and wrong, to wash his clothes, to read stories to, to have cozies before bedtime and tuck him in 'snug-as-a-b
ug'. I want to keep him close to me so I can see with my own eyes that he is safe from a stranger nabbing him at the grocery store, safe from being bullied by teenagers at the park, safe from falling down and scraping his knee, safe from having his heart broken by his first crush, safe from all the hurt and disappointment that will come his way because that is part of living.
It is true what they say: when you have a baby, your heart is forever beating on the outside of your body. It is walking around out there in all it's bittersweet vulnerability in the form of growing children and it ceases to belong to you alone.
I wouldn't have it any other way.
Unless I can get it bubble wrapped.
Today is his last day of school and he'll be starting grade 6 this fall. How the hell did this happen? I blink and realize that my baby boy will soon be finished elementary school and I'll blink again and he'll be getting married or having a baby. Someone please explain how we can send a robot to Mars but we haven't figured out how to delay time?
I'm not ready. I want to keep him at this age because he still needs me to guide him between right and wrong, to wash his clothes, to read stories to, to have cozies before bedtime and tuck him in 'snug-as-a-b
ug'. I want to keep him close to me so I can see with my own eyes that he is safe from a stranger nabbing him at the grocery store, safe from being bullied by teenagers at the park, safe from falling down and scraping his knee, safe from having his heart broken by his first crush, safe from all the hurt and disappointment that will come his way because that is part of living.It is true what they say: when you have a baby, your heart is forever beating on the outside of your body. It is walking around out there in all it's bittersweet vulnerability in the form of growing children and it ceases to belong to you alone.
I wouldn't have it any other way.
Unless I can get it bubble wrapped.
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