G has really gotten into cubes.
5.23.2007
5.22.2007
My Favorite Thing
This Thursday morning brings with it my last MOMS (making our mothering significant - like we need a group to make it significant... more like CEOOMIS, convincing each other our mothering is significant) Again, tangent. Significant mothering is doing nothing to improve my memory or increase brain cells. I have a complaint, powers that be! I need my brain more than ever now, one could argue, and it seems to be vanishing into a black hole of fetching water and snacks and "I have the most boooring life!".
So, last MOMS meeting. For my contribution to our "Fellowship Coffee" I am supposed to bring my favorite thing. Suggestions were thrown about last week: your favorite jean brand (only the skinny ones smiled approvingly at that one), your favorite recipe, product, book etc.
I am paralyzed by the choices and simultaneously want to impress everyone and not remotely stand out as strange, pretentious, "all intellectual", whatever.
The dilemma: what is my "favorite thing"? Certainly not raindrops on roses! (although I do have a lot of roses that are very pretty but cannot escape the much deserved reputation of being a royal pain to care for.) Whiskers on kittens are fine as long as it's someone else's cat. Bright copper kettle? I do love my Le Creuset deep red french oven! Warm woolen mittens? Not so much in LA. Snow is absolutely out of the question. They need a warm weather version of that song.
What does one bring to a bunch of consumered-out SoCal moms?
It is a suprisingly difficult decision. Suggestions?
So, last MOMS meeting. For my contribution to our "Fellowship Coffee" I am supposed to bring my favorite thing. Suggestions were thrown about last week: your favorite jean brand (only the skinny ones smiled approvingly at that one), your favorite recipe, product, book etc.
I am paralyzed by the choices and simultaneously want to impress everyone and not remotely stand out as strange, pretentious, "all intellectual", whatever.
The dilemma: what is my "favorite thing"? Certainly not raindrops on roses! (although I do have a lot of roses that are very pretty but cannot escape the much deserved reputation of being a royal pain to care for.) Whiskers on kittens are fine as long as it's someone else's cat. Bright copper kettle? I do love my Le Creuset deep red french oven! Warm woolen mittens? Not so much in LA. Snow is absolutely out of the question. They need a warm weather version of that song.
What does one bring to a bunch of consumered-out SoCal moms?
It is a suprisingly difficult decision. Suggestions?
5.20.2007
The Easy Life
We don't receive The Discovery Channel because, as with all logical decisions in the world of satellite television, (like I need two dishes on my house because the public television stations are coming from a satellite that is at a bad angle from the first - huh?) we don't receive any of the interesting channels. As a result of this we have to get most of what we watch from Netflix. We have finally gotten to the point where we are only watching things from Netflix or itunes with the exception of American Idol - which is certainly not worth the $29.99/month. Long story made long, we can finally cancel our satellite! Because of our house's placement (we are sort of nestled between two large-ish hills - officially hills because I think they are taller than 500 feet but less than 1000) we cannot get regular antenna reception at all. Therefore, it would be a big move to completely cut ourselves off of any live TV. I keep thinking, what would I do if I wanted to watch some breaking news?
Anyway, not the point.
We have been enjoying Planet Earth on DVD, thanks to Netflix, because we don't get The Discovery Channel. There are six discs in all, with three episodes on each one. Disc One's three episodes ended up being watched 4 or 5 times - the kids couldn't get enough of the amazing stories about the incredible animals literally a world away from your basic zoo experience.
Oh, the injustice in the animal world!
It is incredibly sobering and awe-inspiring and deeply sad and confusing simultaneously. I am sure many of you are familiar with March of the Penguins and the treacherous life of the Antarctic penguins - the gut-wrenching, daily struggle for survival in a world almost completely inhospitable to any kind of life. The battle of the snow leopards, in their cliff-side lairs, consumed with hunting to feed their young. The incredible scrambling up and down after agile prey - always waiting and watching and desperate for food. The heart-breaking story of the giant panda and the life spent eating bamboo, so void of any real nutrition it has to feed constantly and it's milk is so poor in quality it can hardly ever keep it's young thriving and healthy. (I wondered why the giant panda and it's healthy baby we saw at the San Diego Zoo last summer was such a big deal... )
What twisted my 7 year old's brain was the jump to the story about the birds of paradise. A life where the climate is perfect for living and food is so abundant that they have the free time to stand around and clean up their "display area". They filmed this bird carefully tossing dead leaves from his little clearing, scratching branches with pieces of dead wood and leaves. Their biggest concern is finding another bird with whom to mate. A serious concern, to be sure, but a far cry from the birds who spend four months of the year, an egg balanced on their feet, huddled together in -75 degree winds and snowstorms.
We are on the second disc now, and the theme continues. Some animals have plenty of time for playing and relaxing and eating leisurely, some spend their entire existence in a literal fight to the death with the harsh realities of nature. What gives them this drive, the instinct, to fight so fiercely to live? We watched about the ibex the other night and how, in only one lost fight against another male, they can lose the right to ever be permitted to mate. They showed the alpha male, followed by his entourage of ibex ladies, with whom he is allowed to choose from and mate with whenever he pleases.
Anyway, not the point.
We have been enjoying Planet Earth on DVD, thanks to Netflix, because we don't get The Discovery Channel. There are six discs in all, with three episodes on each one. Disc One's three episodes ended up being watched 4 or 5 times - the kids couldn't get enough of the amazing stories about the incredible animals literally a world away from your basic zoo experience.
Oh, the injustice in the animal world!
It is incredibly sobering and awe-inspiring and deeply sad and confusing simultaneously. I am sure many of you are familiar with March of the Penguins and the treacherous life of the Antarctic penguins - the gut-wrenching, daily struggle for survival in a world almost completely inhospitable to any kind of life. The battle of the snow leopards, in their cliff-side lairs, consumed with hunting to feed their young. The incredible scrambling up and down after agile prey - always waiting and watching and desperate for food. The heart-breaking story of the giant panda and the life spent eating bamboo, so void of any real nutrition it has to feed constantly and it's milk is so poor in quality it can hardly ever keep it's young thriving and healthy. (I wondered why the giant panda and it's healthy baby we saw at the San Diego Zoo last summer was such a big deal... )
What twisted my 7 year old's brain was the jump to the story about the birds of paradise. A life where the climate is perfect for living and food is so abundant that they have the free time to stand around and clean up their "display area". They filmed this bird carefully tossing dead leaves from his little clearing, scratching branches with pieces of dead wood and leaves. Their biggest concern is finding another bird with whom to mate. A serious concern, to be sure, but a far cry from the birds who spend four months of the year, an egg balanced on their feet, huddled together in -75 degree winds and snowstorms.
We are on the second disc now, and the theme continues. Some animals have plenty of time for playing and relaxing and eating leisurely, some spend their entire existence in a literal fight to the death with the harsh realities of nature. What gives them this drive, the instinct, to fight so fiercely to live? We watched about the ibex the other night and how, in only one lost fight against another male, they can lose the right to ever be permitted to mate. They showed the alpha male, followed by his entourage of ibex ladies, with whom he is allowed to choose from and mate with whenever he pleases.
5.16.2007
Nine Years
Anniversaries are always a chance for some nostalgia, some sentiment, some reflection on what we've been through and how far we've grown together.
Perhaps the greatest advantage (and disadvantage) of marrying young and not really knowing anything is that you don't really know, well, anything. You don't have a great sense of the scale of time passing and how the most mundane life circumstances will shake out all the deepest parts of your depravity - all over each other.
I suppose, at first, I thought it would be the tragedies and suffering that would bring out the worst. (OK, there was that screaming I did when my grandmother died and we were lost in the dark on Long Island.) And so, I was surprised to discover, as I reflected this morning, that our marriage has struggled most in the times devoid of some trial. So, lucky for us, our nine years of marriage have been fraught with suffering. And that has made all the difference.
I made a list of all the trials and sufferings we've been through - and it is too long and too depressing. I lost count at 8 - when I was attempting to recall the people we loved who have died since our wedding. Friends suffering, babies sick, pregnancy impossibilities, marriages falling apart. It has not been possible to forget for more than a few days that we are sustained by the grace of God alone.
Why my husband is better than before:
1. All I have to do is agree on a family bike ride and he is elated.
2. He accepts that I don't like making him lunches either.
3. He finds the new good stuff (movies, TV shows, music) and his taste is only getting better. (Who made me the judge? I don't know - this is where love is blind)
4. If I have all the ingredients for dinner - he actually enjoys coming home and putting it together.
5. He is very funny.
6. He knows when I am hungry, tired, or justifiably angry - and can talk me back from the ledge.
7. Encourages me to take time to myself - shooing me out the door some evenings (kids still awake! Kitchen messy!)
8. The kids can't go to bed without him and the little detailed rituals he takes them through. The song, the handshake, the secret shapes.
9. He loves chess but doesn't make me play or get annoyed that I refuse to play.
10. Maybe this goes with #3 - but he is constantly pushing me to expand my tastes. Listening to new things, watching new things, going to new places, making new friends, reading new things.
11. He lets me have the NY Times magazine and Sunday Styles both to myself on Sundays.
(He claims to prefer the Book Review... but how could he possibly over Modern Love?! Impossible!)
Perhaps the greatest advantage (and disadvantage) of marrying young and not really knowing anything is that you don't really know, well, anything. You don't have a great sense of the scale of time passing and how the most mundane life circumstances will shake out all the deepest parts of your depravity - all over each other.
I suppose, at first, I thought it would be the tragedies and suffering that would bring out the worst. (OK, there was that screaming I did when my grandmother died and we were lost in the dark on Long Island.) And so, I was surprised to discover, as I reflected this morning, that our marriage has struggled most in the times devoid of some trial. So, lucky for us, our nine years of marriage have been fraught with suffering. And that has made all the difference.
I made a list of all the trials and sufferings we've been through - and it is too long and too depressing. I lost count at 8 - when I was attempting to recall the people we loved who have died since our wedding. Friends suffering, babies sick, pregnancy impossibilities, marriages falling apart. It has not been possible to forget for more than a few days that we are sustained by the grace of God alone.
Why my husband is better than before:
1. All I have to do is agree on a family bike ride and he is elated.
2. He accepts that I don't like making him lunches either.
3. He finds the new good stuff (movies, TV shows, music) and his taste is only getting better. (Who made me the judge? I don't know - this is where love is blind)
4. If I have all the ingredients for dinner - he actually enjoys coming home and putting it together.
5. He is very funny.
6. He knows when I am hungry, tired, or justifiably angry - and can talk me back from the ledge.
7. Encourages me to take time to myself - shooing me out the door some evenings (kids still awake! Kitchen messy!)
8. The kids can't go to bed without him and the little detailed rituals he takes them through. The song, the handshake, the secret shapes.
9. He loves chess but doesn't make me play or get annoyed that I refuse to play.
10. Maybe this goes with #3 - but he is constantly pushing me to expand my tastes. Listening to new things, watching new things, going to new places, making new friends, reading new things.
11. He lets me have the NY Times magazine and Sunday Styles both to myself on Sundays.
(He claims to prefer the Book Review... but how could he possibly over Modern Love?! Impossible!)
5.10.2007
7 on the 7th, 2007
We went to a funny place called Fo-Fo Figgily's on the day of G's birthday. It was his dream place - soft things to climb up, guns for shooting soft balls around, big twisty slides that are long and dark and fast.
It was cool, and he was happy. (No small feat considering his birthday was on a Monday and he had school and a violin lesson - torture!)
One thing a short seven years of parenting my son has taught me - what I say can't change him. I love and listen and validate and discipline over a long haul - and he will do one thing consistenly: challenge my love and acceptance of him.
As DH says: "It's a marathon, Jess, not a sprint."
I am never nostalgic for G's birth, or his days as an infant. I thought that was normal until I had my second. With G I am always content to see him growing and healthy - never longing for baby days of 3 pounds, agony over ounces and what the future would hold.
As he said, "It's more special today Mom, it's my golden birthday!"
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