Curiosity

Anyone know what's up with Polio's blog? I clicked on it and discovered he was up to 33 posts on his Christmas list for 2007. Thinking that was more than I had recalled from the last dozen or more times I visited, I checked them out--expecting family and friends to be making encouraging comments about updating the posts. Or snide remarks. Whatever.

What I discovered was a list of posts in the last few months that appear to be coming from another country--or at least are being posted in a language that is not English. Polio--are these friends of yours? Nosy people want to know what they have written.

Has Polio's blog become popular in another place and if he would just keep it up he could get a cult following? Has he learned a new language and is practicing his conversational skills?

Nosy people want to know. At least this one does.

Different viewpoints

We are 2-1/2 months away from our third anniversary, and Chill and I have never really had a fight. We don't always agree, but so far there has not been a disagreement where we both felt so strongly about our positions that we were unable to find an acceptable solution.

There are some things that we view differently that are not likely to change. For example, the food I love most to cook and to eat is bread. I married a guy who could happily forgo bread at most meals. To him, bread is for keeping the mayo and meat off your hands when you eat a sandwich.

Then there are meal times. Before we married Chill often ate no meal until he got home from work in the evening. Breakfast was a never meal and lunch occurred if a buddy showed up with something. Efforts to seek out a mid-day meal were pretty much non-existent. I, on the other hand, ate four meals daily and at pretty much the same time each day. It keeps my blood sugar more consistent. And I snack in between, too.

I have adjusted the time of day that I eat so that I can have a snack when Oyster comes home in the afternoon and supper with Chill after he gets home in the late evening. He still skips breakfast, but he dutifully eats the sandwich I prepare for him most weekdays. We generally share a meal as a family between church and his opening the shop on Sundays.

But then there is how we view lawn care. Chill sees it as a battle that must be waged to keep everything neat and tidy. He likes order and he hates for he plants to fight back. Trees that I see with graceful branches reaching out to drape across the landscaping he views as adversaries out to slap him in the face as he mows. I like the wild and untamed landscaping of wildflowers and ground cover without straight lines or symmetry. I've been trying to teach Oyster the difference between balance and symmetry. Balance is more pleasing to the eye and less boring.

As a compromise, I am trying to limit my planting to the edges of the lawn--up against the fence, close to the walk-way, and near the front of the house. I've also put in a few things around the trees (where previous residents left perennials). And Chill has asked me to point out what I would like to survive the battle when he mows or uses the weed eater. While we may never truly agree about which landscaping rules are the most important--we are both making an effort to see the other person's point of view.

Do you believe in magic?

I believe in magic. I look at the wonders of this planet on which we live and I am astounded at the magic all around us. According to Wikipedia, one definition of magic is, “the use of supernatural forces to manipulate natural forces.” Merriam-Webster says magic is, “an extraordinary power or influence seemingly from a supernatural source.” Sure sounds like antiseptic descriptions of God to me.

When most people think of magic, they envision white tigers with tuxedoed trainers and whips, coins being pulled from behind ears, card tricks, or disappearing buildings. But those are actually sleight of hand parlor tricks that require much practice and a bit of redirection. God doesn’t ask us to look away while he performs his magic. He doesn’t try to hide the mechanism. In fact, as humankind has developed, God has slowly given us insight into his creation.

Consider the science of evolution. How can that possibly be accidental, coincidental, or happenstance? From the migration of the birds and butterflies to the pollination of the trees, magic is present everywhere, and I believe that magic was instituted at the hand of our Creator. In addition to the gift of life itself and all the wonders that abound around us, we are being given the opportunity to learn about our Creator by learning about his creation.

We have the chance to learn the physics, biology, and chemistry that make up our world. We get to see the mathematical progression and the psychology of life. We are privileged to see the wonder, the magic.

Let’s make the most of the world around us. Take a moment to contemplate how truly fantastic our environment is. Whether it is the joy of biting into the first fruits of the garden, the fun of watching a child watch an insect, or the breeze wafting the smell of the Easter Lilies, recognize God’s magic and revel in the wonder.

As the Book of Common Prayer says:
“God of all power, Ruler of the Universe, you are worthy of glory and praise...At your command all things came to be: the vast expanse of interstellar space, galaxies, suns, the planets in their courses, and this fragile earth, our island home...From the primal elements you brought forth the human race, and blessed us with memory, reason, and skill…”(Eucharistic Prayer C, page 370)

I believe in magic. Do you?

May I brag?

I sent the following message out via e-mail to family and friends recently. And I am still bursting with pride, so here it goes again (for those who already received it) and here it is (for those who did not). There is something different at the end--so if you stop reading now, you may miss something.

Hi, everybody--


Just a proud mommy writing to let you know that three of Oyster's art projects were chosen by her teacher to send to Art Break this year. She has had at least one piece in the show each year we have been in town. This year one of her three won a Showcase Award! Each school gets to choose 21 pieces to enter into the contest. I have no idea how many win or what the various names of the awards convey--but the ribbon was blue.


Also, at the after-school program she attends she had several poems chosen to go into a book. They named the book after one of her poems, "Over the Hill and through the Gate." And here is the poem:


Over the Hill and through the Gate


Every once in a while, I dream of my own personal playground. It is magical. My mom always comes with me. When we go, we just walk over the hill and through the gate. The gate is made of wood strips. The hill's grass is green. There is an invisible man. Sometimes he even makes ME invisible! He is the one who makes everything magic!


She turned in her Share Fair project today and I have my fingers crossed that she will get an A. She and her firend, Abalone, put a lot of work into it. Abalone wrote about how Egyptian pyramids were constructed. Oyster wrote about what has been found inside Egyptian tombs. Last year she received first place in the Science and the Social Studies fairs. This year the third grade combined them into one fair and the kids had a lot of latitude in choosing a project. The competition looked pretty tough (I helped set up the displays yesterday evening after the PTA meeting). Keep your fingers crossed.

As soon as school ends (May 27), Oyster goes under the knife. Adenoids and tonsils come out on May 28 in what is scheduled to be out-patient surgery. The doctor advises she needs one week in bed and a following week of very quiet activity, then should be able to resume her normal life. We are hoping this will nix the chronic cough she has had since she was two. We will no longer be dealing with huge tonsils that make it hard to swallow, too. And, I have heard that maybe her disposition will become less irritable when she is feeling better. We will all enjoy that.

continuing conversation

We shared a conversation in the car today that echoes others from the past. Let's start at the beginning--as much as I can remember, anyway.

At age 3 Oyster got in trouble at daycare for stating, "Boys have a penis. Girls have a vagina." I found this much less horrible than the daycare lady, and I must admit I was proud that Oyster was able to pronounce the words well enough that when they were repeated by another child to the daycare staff that they were understood. One of the other mothers found it just as amusing as I did--and told me she believed her child had actually been the one to teach these facts to Oyster, as they had discussed the topic at bathtime the previous evening when her daughter noticed the difference between her parts and those of her younger brother.

Until I was told this I had figured Oyster got the info from her aunt or grandfather when visiting them. The aunt frequently took her to the zoo where sometimes things are much more obvious than they are in other settings. The grandfather has many horses and Oyster was just at eye-level with certain protruding parts that may have aroused her curiosity. It seemed reasonable to me that if she had asked, either of them would have answered in a matter-of-fact manner and never thought it was significant enough to mention to me. I would have agreed.

At age 6 Oyster got in trouble at Catholic school for coloring a penis on one of her coloring pages. The drawing showed a monster with his pants unzipped and I have to agree with Oyster that it sure looked like he had a penis before she ever received the paper. If she hadn't used that word, her unimaginative teacher would never have suspected that was what she thought. However, the straight-laced Baptist teacher at the Episcopal school didn't see it that way and was totally horrified. She berated me for ever having allowed my daughter to know what a penis is.

So, now at age 9 it comes up again. We are driving down the road and I pointed out a mastiff puppy sitting on a porch. I commented that he was pretty. After advising me that pomeranians are pretty, and he was not a pomeranian, she added that he may not have even been a he. I replied, "It was a he," to which she asked, "Do you know that because you saw his penis?" I said, "yes," and figured that was the end of the conversation.

However, she was on a roll. She declared everyone has a penis. I disagreed, thinking I wasn't certain I was ready for this conversation--especially if I have to face another teacher who is up in arms about whatever will come out of this at school tomorrow. After telling me several times that girls have penises, but they are smaller and you can't see them, she finally admitted she was just pretending.

I told her she doesn't want one. She's much better off just like she is. So she asked, "Is that because they stick out and get in the way? And you have to wear a cup to keep it from getting hurt?" We left the topic with my agreeing that was it exactly.

Now, please, God. May I wait another three years before she wants to discuss this again?

In the news...

I've found news stories as told by the local radio announcers and headlines on what "my home page" thinks I want to see to be equally annoying. Here are a few:

Two attractive blonde women wore identical dresses in public. Why should I care? And not only does this seem like anti-news, is it all that unusual?

On the heels of the healthcare reform bill being signed 13 states have put together bills to exempt themselves from certain aspects of the bill on the grounds that no where in the constitution does it say that the federal government has the right to mandate health insurance to the states. Where to begin? Let's see--unless they happened to have a mobster with goons demanding payment to insure the goons did not damage a shop, home, or family, I don't think there was insurance in colonial days.

In a related story, the local radio idiot seemed rather proud that Louisiana is one of those 13 states. He was definitely proud when he proclaimed that none of the Louisiana legislators voted for the bill. I'm not sure which of these individuals comes across as more stupid or mean-spirited--the elected officials or the newscaster. None of them will get my vote in the next election.

An illegal alien shot and killed one police officer and wounded another during a traffic stop in Florida. Cops hunted him down and put 68 bullets into him. The glee in the voice of the announcer disgusted me, as did his commentary about the story. It seems in his mind the most important part of the tale was the citizenship of the individual. Does he honestly believe that American citizens are not out there committing equally stupid acts? And jokes about how the man died of natural causes--that he was shot 68 times, so naturally he died--or that the cops put that many bullets in him because that was how many they had--are not what I consider appropriate for my child to listen to as we drive to school.

Or how about this one from the drive to school one day just before Spring Break began? A Florida woman wrecked her car because she was shaving her bikini area while driving. Her husband was steering for her so she could be shaved when they got to her boyfriend's house. Yeah. That was an interesting conversation starter as I was dropping Oyster at school. We even talked about it again after school--at her initiation.

By the way--we don't listen to the radio in the car, anymore.

with age comes maturity--sometimes

Parenting can be fascinating, fun, frustrating, and a few other f-words. (Like fabulous--get your minds out of the gutter)!

Lately I have noticed a new maturity that is at odds with the little girl whine I hear almost daily. Chores get done without reminders and nagging. Sometimes. Clothing choices are definitely becoming more sophisticated--except at bedtime when the footie pj's are just as likely to be donned as the oversized t-shirt or the Halloween jammies.

A desire for grown-up hairstyles competes with an equal desire to let the tangles fall where they may. An interest in how teeth become beautiful fights with the reluctance to put forth the effort to keep her teeth as healthy as possible.

It is interesting to discuss the books Oyster is reading and hear her perspective on the characters and events. Sometimes she is right on target (Sounder is the only character in the book with a given name because he is the only one who is special--all the others are interchangeable with any number of individuals and the author wanted to convey his uniqueness). And sometimes a cat is a cat, no matter how special the author tried to make it.

The dichotomy is fun to watch and I plan to try to take note of the changes as they occur. You can actually watch the brain develop if you pay attention.