Q & A Wednesday

how do you spend your "down time?"

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during the school year down time for me is spent by little outings with my family. the grocery store. a restaurant. exercise around the neighborhood or at a near by park. and dinner parties at our house. and of course, when the time has come, watching football with friends.

it used to be that i would stay up late, really late, with my husband

and my friends. 1 or 2a.m. was early on a weekend and reasonable on a weeknight

before i had two children

when the summer began i made jokes with anyone who asked "how do you intend to spend the summer?" by saying with a smirk on my face, "nothing, nothing at all. i'll eat when they (H&L) eat, and i'll sleep when they sleep."

i have napped almost every single day this summer. not little 20 - 30 minute snoozers, full on 2-3 hour slumbers, in the bed.

i also read, a lot. i find that i am often giving justifications to myself for reasons why it isn't a sin to lay around as much as i do. i still exercise. the grocery store gets done. the housework, mostly, gets done. the laundry is always done. i spend time with and talk to my friends. i go to church and lead a bible study once a week. so in my down time, i read and nap.

there are some types of people that can't sleep during the day and who don't like to read. i, personally can't understand this. i'm not a t.v. during the day kind of person. unless there is a movie for the babies on the t.v. is off. i prefer listening to NPR or Christian radio to t.v. i prefer the couch with a good book to window shopping. i take great comfort in my home and the preparations i make to keep it a cool safe and happy place for my husband and children. so one way for me to enjoy my home and my life and take it all in is to sit and be still.

so, how do you spend your down time?

July 5th, part II

After my lunch time feast for one, I loaded the babies to go on a stroll. I thought it would be nice to get outdoors and enjoy the overcast skies and cooler temps. About a mile and a half away from our house, only half way through with the course I had planned on completing I realized that the sun was fully out, it was pretty darn humid, and I didn't bring my water bottle. The babies, however, were each clinging to their sippy cups filled to the brim with ice cold water/apple juice mixture. Here is my question:

How do you teach your children "mercy?"

They know how to "share" and "give" and "take turns" mostly because when they do these things with each other Mommy praises each one by telling each baby how sweet she is and that sharing is the right thing to do. At home, if one refuses to give the other a turn with (fill in the blank) Mommy usually intercedes and shows the proper way to share and more praises follow. They have learned, like Pavlov's dogs, that when you hear the word "share" you should "give" and Mommy will "sing."

Mercy... is an entirely different concept than this. You see, with the temperature outside easily 100 degrees and me pushing 40 pounds uphill some of the way, I WAS HOT AND GETTING IN NEED OF HYDRATION. I said, "babies, mommy is thirsty and needs a sip. will you share?"

Both babies said, "no" and clung tighter to their beloved sippy cups.

Hmm...

Again, "babies, share with mommy, one sip. mommy is thirsty, please. please, share." (this works with sharing Mrs. Potato Head)

Again, "Nome, no no no cup."

I stopped the stroller and said, "because you will not share mommy is taking the cup and going to have a sip. you will share with mommy."

I took a swig from each cup and the girls actually thought it was funny. They giggled. And I am sure it was a sight to see - grown woman on the side of the road drinking from her babies' bright orange sippy cups. Of course when I was finished I gave the cups back and said, "thank you babies."

So, the sharing thing they have got down pat. Mercy, however, will take some time.

July 5th

There is a peaceful easy feeling I get when it is overcast outside, nice temps, and leftover veggies in the fridge. The day after our nations has celebrated Independence Day. It is 10:43 a.m. y'all and I just put a skillet of cornbread batter in the oven on 400 to have with my lunch of turnip greens, green beans, yellow squash, and grilled chicken... I might fore go the chicken and reheat the white corn on the cob and make it a true veggie plate. That is what is happening in my kitchen this morning.

Oh, and did you know that I season ALL of my vegetables, when I'm cookin' like this, with bacon fat? That is right. I save the bacon fat drippings each time we cook bacon in an old glass mayo jar. It sits in the back of my fridge till I'm making cornbread and veggies then it is several tall scoops slung into each boiler for the best flavored greens and corn bread... mmm mmm mmm.

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We celebrated the 4th of July by attending Church yesterday morning, shaking the hands of WW2 and Vietnam veterans. Some were young enough that I am guessing they served in the Gulf War and some still currently serving. It was special to see them lined up at the alter standing as tall as their old crooked spines would let them. Their eyes were still so blue behind spotted spectacles and their wives standing so proud among the congregation, with the sparkliest sequined red, white, and blue vests and festive earrings and pins - and the brightest red lipstick, brighter than Christmas time/December red lipsticks...

Last night, we headed over to "Moomps and Pa's" (my parents) house for a cookout and some swimming. We all played outside until it was simply too dark and the MCC fireworks started at 9p.m. This was NOT the high-light of the night for the babies, in fact, it was sheer terror for them! And you can imagine that it would be quite scary for young eyes and ears that have never heard fireworks booming just 6 or 7 blocks over and to see these colorful explosions over head. No matter how much I tried to tell them, "Look! so pretty! boom!" they weren't having it. So there Daddy and Pa took the babies inside and I watched the finale with my Mama. It was really really cool... I used to stand with my mom and dad and sister on the same front porch every year growing up and watch those fireworks and here I was again with 2 kids in the house, by this point in the night, begging to watch Elmo and go "night night." So we drove home, put them to bed just before 10 o'clock and they went down without a single peep... Lily in her car seat kept saying, "go home? a baby? go night night?"

It is now 10:58a.m. and with my cornbread almost ready, I still have yet to hear a single peep from them. I'll let them sleep all day if they want... peaceful easy feeling all through the house... and the scent of bacon fat, mmm mmm mmm.

a little catching up

How do you like the new layout? This blog needed a change. I tried to think of a new title...but couldn't. "baby steps" has been what I have called this place since I went into the hospital a little over two years ago and my babies went into the nicu. It seems like I had a lot more readers then. People would comment in passing about how they kept up with H&L's progress through checking my blog. I even had pretty regular and numerous comments in the comments sections. These days, I don't know if anyone reads at all - if they do they certainly stopped commenting.

The running joke among my husband and friends has been that "blogging is dead." I said to him, "I don't even know the point anymore; no one comments and I can't blame them, I don't have that great or controversial to say hardly ever." And he said, "well you shouldn't blog for them, you should blog for you." Well I'll try that out, more often, and more interestingly, and maybe more controversially, for me.

But back to the name. I tried to change it once to something like "Sound Mind Sound Body Sound Soul" or some other cheese like that but came back to this one: "baby steps." It is fitting I suppose since, probably, a lot of my posts have to do with updates on my children and being a mother or just every day life. But, also, I think that "baby steps" is an appropriate metaphor for my life in general since everyday I continue to learn and process "growing up". So "baby steps" it is.

O.k. so in my last post I mentioned that I was reading Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. This book was recommended to me by my husband who attended a small Methodist Liberal Arts College in the deep deep South. He often says that he loves his school because it helped in grow in academics, of course, but it also helped him grown in his faith because every class he took challenged him to think for himself. He said the book was about "Leavers and Takers." When I first heard this term I immediately thought of another post I have read before over at The Spivey Life. I thought the book would be about lazy people and not as lazy as those people people. I was wrong, sort of. The book, as I mentioned is a conversation between a gorilla and his human student about how the world "got to be the way it is." I will not try to give any kind of summary or real synopsis of the book because I think if this at all interests you then you should read it for yourself. However, I will pose a few questions that were raised in the novel... questions that Ishmael asked the man that have MY wheels turning.

-why do humans teach that this world was created for humans?

-why do humans teach that evolution AND/OR creation ended after humans?

-why do humans feel that it is right and necessary to be the only species to take from, steal from, and murder each other AND other species in order to get what they want?

-is there an unspoken law of survival and food chains etc. that every other species follows that humans feel they are exempt from and if so why?

-will humans continue to live "this way" until we extinguish all natural resources and essentially commit global suicide over a period of thousands or millions of years? and if we knew a solution... a better way to live, could we do it? what would it take?

The book did not shake my faith in any way really but it did,however, cause me to think differently, and for that I applaud the author.

That is really all for now...