IT HAS BEGUN...

I stopped off at Costco today on the way home from TaeKwonDo lessons. It was a hectic day, and I hadn't had a chance to get dinner going before TKD so S and I swung by there on the way home on a quest for a tasty frozen meal. We did our usual quick perusal of all things we find interesting, and since it was too late for there to be any samples that cut our route down to the Electronics, Book/DVD and seasonal sections as well as the few food aisles we needed. Actually I wasn't even planning on going through the seasonal aisle, as I had been through it last week, but as I was crossing from the video section and over to the food aisles, it caught my eye.

The glinting of shiny paper, and bows...and was that ceramic thing on the end there something resembling a tree with snow on it? Curiosity took me closer, and sure enough...it was there. Christmas wrapping paper (several assortments), bows, and some kind of reclining elf decoration. Ornaments too. Of course its not full blown yet, but it definitely has begun.

I actually have mixed emotions about this. I hate the commercialism and greed that has become the hallmark (no pun intended, but it was noticed) of the Holiday Season. On the other hand, Christmas is my favorite time of year...because of the lights, the decorations, the music, the giving and the general goodwill toward men. I have been known to break out the Christmas CDs in August, and if not then, almost definitely by the end of September. Not the jingle bell rock kind of music though...that drives me crazy. You can just get rid of all those I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus, and the Rockin' around the Christmas Tree songs. But that is an argument for another blog. Back to my point...I hate the commercialism, but I find myself enjoying seeing the displays, the decorations, the lights up in stores. Sure they are put there to get people to start spending early, but I just like to look at them. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Today's Christmas merchandise at Costco wasn't all that exciting. But it did remind me that within weeks there will be Christmas things up in many places. I can set aside the commercialism and just enjoy the reminders. Maybe we should keep Christmas all year. Maybe not the eating, or we would all end up overweight and with health problems...but the music, the joy, the laughter, the love. The Gift that God gave us all that was meant to be a gift for every day, and not just one day of the year. I think that this year, instead of grumbling about how early they put out the Christmas things, I am going to just try to focus on the wonder of the season and let everything else be a reminder that points me in that direction. So...go Costco go. Please put the light displays up next, they are one my favorite things.

Breakfast...the most important meal of the day

Today, I thought I would write my blog early in an effort to avoid my usual rush to get it done before the end of the day, or worse, miss the blogging for that day entirely.
And since I am writing this blog in the A.M. I thought that today I would think about ... breakfast. More specifically, breakfast cereals. I am also pausing every few words to eat a few bites of my Honey Nut Cheerios in celebration of blogging about breakfast.
According to the BBC:

Breakfast is 'most important meal'

Eating breakfast is the secret to staying healthy, according to evidence unearthed by doctors in the US.
They believe skipping the first meal of the day increases the chances of becoming obese, developing diabetes or even having a heart attack.

The article goes on to saying how whole grain cereals are the best thing to eat for breakfast and blah, blah, blah. Another article suggests...
For a Nutritious Breakfast Include:
Fruit or Vegetable (or their juice): Choose one rich in Vitamin C such as oranges, lemons, grapefruits, cantaloupe, or tomato.
A source of Fiber: Include a good source of fiber (at least 3 grams fiber per serving). Include good sources of fiber such as: whole grain breads or muffins, whole grain cereals (bran, oatmeal, unsweetened granola, shredded wheat); brown rice, fruits and vegetables.
Protein: Include a good source of protein such as: milk, soy milk, cheese, yogurt, meat, veggie meats, fish, poultry, beans, or eggs.
I was always raised eating a bowl of cereal with milk for breakfast...or oatmeal, which I got so sick of that I wouldn't even touch it for years (unless it was in an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie). I always thought that a bowl of cereal with milk was a complete breakfast. Then as a grown up I noticed that when there were commercials for cereal on TV, they always said "as part of a complete breakfast," or some such thing. So now the meal I thought was the easiest, most simple meal of the day, has become expensive and time consuming. Pour the high fiber cereal, chop up some fruit or make juice, toast some whole wheat bread...yadayadayada. Of course, not as time consuming as preparing dinner, but I think it puts lunch solidly in the easiest and most simple category for me.
I was originally going to write this blog entry about different kinds of breakfast cereals until I googled 'breakfast most important meal' and found all these articles about what we should be eating. The part where it says a cereal with at least 3 grams of fiber per serving especially caught my eye. Then in another article they said at least 4 grams of fiber! So who should I believe? I decided to take a look at some of the cereal boxes in my cupboard and see how they stacked up. I was surprised to find that most of them...didn't. Of course I expected the Peanut Butter Cookie Crisp (hey, we have a family tradition that we each get to pick whatever cereal we want for our birthday breakfast...and S picked that one) would not meet the challenge. I was not disappointed in this assumption. Peanut Butter Cookie Crisp was woefully low in fiber with only one gram per 3/4 cup serving, and 13 grams of sugar. Scary! I decided to turn to what I thought were more nutritious options in my pantry. My beloved Honey Nut Cheerios to start with...2 grams of dietary fiber per 3/4 cup serving...but wait...a little line underneath that says...less than 1 gram of soluble fiber. What does that mean? What is the difference between dietary and soluble fiber? Does it make my Honey Nut Cheerios even less healthy than they already are? Oh, and 9 grams of sugar. On to Chex...Corn Chex to be exact. I will admit that because of the pricey nature of chex I buy it more to make wonderfully tasty and very bad for you Chex Muddy Buddies than to eat it for breakfast, but during the holidays when it goes on sale so that everyone and their dog can get sick of Chex Mix, I do eat it regularly for breakfast. Chex wouldn't disappoint me...it has to be good for you! Its not even sugar coated! Corn Chex...1 gram of fiber per 1 cup serving! AAAAAAAAAaaaaaahhhhh!!!!! But!...only 3 grams of sugar. So some kudos there. On to Honey Bunches of Oats...with Almonds. 2 grams of dietary fiber, 6 grams sugar per 3/4 cup serving. Life cereal...that tasty cereal that you have to practically inhale or it becomes too soggy with milk to bother with. Life cereal has 2 grams of fiber, and 6 grams of sugar per 3/4 cup serving. And last but certainly not least (although it has the least amount of flavor) plain old original Cheerios. Cheerios, the champion of cereals...the one that always floats. 3 grams of dietary fiber (1 of soluble) and 1 gram of sugar per 1 cup serving. So the only cereal in my house that passed the 3 gram test (but still fell short of the 4 grams) was the one we eat the least of. I will say one more thing about all of these kinds (even different brands) of cereals. Every single one of them without exception...even the Cookie Crisp, had something on the front in bold letters that says WITH WHOLE GRAIN. I used to think I was so good, because for the most part I steer clear of the really sugary cereals. Now, I am beginning to think that they should move the majority of the cereal section to the snack aisle. It certainly doesn't seem to cut it in the breakfast department. There are a few exceptions that I took the liberty of looking up online. Frosted Mini Wheats have 5 grams of fiber...but 10 grams of sugar...better to go with the unfrosted ones I guess. According to http://www.nutritiondata.com/nutrient-search.html (where any of you can go to compare the various nutrients and etc of various foods) Kelloggs All Bran is the highest in fiber at a whopping 15 grams, and the lowest in sugar at 0 grams...and it only has 58 calories to boot. Other options for high fiber include Fiber One, various Bran cereals and etc. So see? Hope is not gone...only taste is to be sacrificed.
In closing I would like to end with a favorite quote that I found on my many perusings of information about breakfast, and breakfast cereals today. It comes from a press release from UCBerkely news.
"More and more Americans are skipping breakfast as the pace of our lives becomes increasingly hectic," said Gladys Block, UC Berkeley professor of nutritional epidemiology and principal investigator of the study. "What our study shows is that if the goal is to lose or maintain weight, skipping breakfast is not a good way to go about it. Skipping breakfast may be just as bad as eating a chunk of cheese first thing in the morning."
Pass the cheese please...

This planet would be a much prettier place without people on it.

This is a truth that I just came to realize today. I never thought about it before really, but today it hit me.
Today was son 2's 8th birthday. We did the church thing, we did the gifts thing, and we planned out the special dinner and cake thing. We realized that summer is almost over...pretty much only a week left here (I know it doesn't officially end until September 20th or something, but for all intents and purposes it ends when school starts, which is just over a week here. Heck, in places like Utah and Idaho, summer was over a week ago.) This summer has been a busy one for us. I don't know exactly why it has felt that way. Yes, we have had some things going on, and D has been busy with work and working extra hours, but even so he is less busy than he was with his previous job, and we usually did more summery things back in the busier days.
So today we decided to take a little drive and see if we could find Young's River Falls. We have lived in the Astoria area (although we don't live right in Astoria) for almost three years now, and although we have heard about the falls, we have never actually gone there to check it out ourselves. So we loaded the boys into the van, and off we went. The falls is probably about 15 to 20 minutes from our house. A nice drive on winding roads with nice pastureland and forest. We got there and pulled into the parking area. There were about five other cars there, making the parking lot over half full since its a small one, but still it seemed like it wouldn't be too crowded. The first thing that greeted me when I opened the door of the van and got out though, was the sight of several beer bottles strewn around the parking area. There were a few other items of litter...okay, maybe just one empty chip bag, and all the rest was booze bottles, cans and the cardboard remains of a multipack box of beer. "Hey kids! Want to go walk around a dump? You can find out what beer bottles look like since you have never seen one up close! Its educational!" I pretty much wanted to get back in the car and just go home. Okay, I can't really judge people for their beverage choice although I have yet to see the attraction of booze in any form. But pick up after yourselves!
Since we were there, and I knew the kids would freak out if we just left without looking at the falls, we went ahead and started down the trail. There were a couple of signs at the top of the trail that had something to do with Lewis and Clark. I am not sure what since the signs were full of bullet holes, and parts of them had been destroyed as well. I didn't really try to read much of it, I just thought that I didn't really want to bring the kids somewhere that was obviously a big drinking and shooting while under the influence kind of party place. All the other people there looked to be pretty normal. Families with little kids wading in the water and etc. We went on down the trail and got to see the falls. They aren't spectacular, but they are pretty, and the kids enjoyed trying to skip rocks and make big splashes by throwing rocks into the water. We saw a couple of spots that would be good for a future family photo and such, and one time when D skipped a rock across the water a huge fish jumped our right after the spot where the last skip went down. It was a pretty cool sight. The boys had fun, but I just couldn't get over the sight of the broken bottles, the trash, the cans, and what looked like the plunger part of a hypodermic laying around the area. How hard is it to take your trash with you? Obviously pretty hard. I bet its hard to hike up the hill after you have had a few beers, and try to carry the bottles too? Thats absurd. I have to say, that there are times that I think I would enjoy it if my family and all the nice people I have ever met were the only people on the earth. I know, what a horrible thing to think...but it sure would be a cleaner place.
I am not perfect. I know that there have been times when a stray gust of wind has blown a fruit snack wrapper, or some other trash out of our van, and if I have seen it, then I have gone after it (even if it means making one of the boys crawl under the car for it-hey-I don't fit under the car anymore). I am sure there has been a time or two that I didn't notice the flying debris, and maybe I have offended someone else by it. I hope not.
You know...today's visit to Youngs River Falls reminded me of Glass Beach. What a quaint sounding name right? Glass Beach is a little spot along the Columbia river where some of my high school friends and I sometimes hung out. And it was called glass beach because of all the broken booze bottles that littered the shore from underage drinkers hanging out there. I wasn't a drinker, and my friends didn't drink around me if they were drinkers...it was just a place we hung out. I didn't really think about it back then, but the glass bothers me now. And it bothers me that a pretty place like Youngs River Falls is well on its way to becoming Glass Falls. I think we can all take better care of the world, and keep the pretty places...pretty. I for one, am going to watch where those snack wrappers blow when the car door opens, or better yet, keep the car cleaner inside so I don't have to worry about it anymore. I hope that the next time we try visiting those falls we can actually enjoy the beauty of it.

Not a creature was stirring...except...

Its amazing how life can throw a wrench into our carefully laid plans. Life for me, seems to be interfering with my blogging. That is okay, I suppose, since blogging isn’t the most important thing in life.
I intended to blog yesterday, to catch up to my average of blogging every other day. However, I was interfered with…
By a rat.
Quite literally. I found it hard to sleep, and I am still feeling the effects of it. Yes…we had a rat get into our house. We spent until two a.m. searching for it to no avail, then spent a very restless, nightmare filled night waiting for the rat to attack us in our sleep and eat the soles of our feet. I did anyhow. The kids were blissfully unaware as the appearance of the rat was after they were all sleeping.
This morning though, we informed them of the presence of a rat somewhere in our house, and told them to keep their shoes on. It wasn’t long before the brave little rodent made a break for it, and was spotted by the eagle eye of boy 2 (second son, S). D tried to corner it, but it ended up behind the piano. With a little work, our trusty brooms (I am so glad we kept all three brooms even though we only need one and two are virtually useless), and a wastebasket, we were able to capture the evil creature, put it in a bucket and drive it far out into the country (okay…so only a couple of miles away to the woods) to set it free.
Of course I am never going to be the same…not ever. I am not sure I can sleep tonight, knowing that the little rat could have a whole family lurking somewhere. I spent the better part of the day moving the fridge, the stove, the dishwasher (its aportable one, that doesn’t actually work, but makes a lovely countertop) sweeping, mopping, disinfecting. I am sore…and I still have to go through the rest of the house and deep clean. We did the cursory shower of Lysol over everything…but what I really need is a dumpster and for my husband to have a week of vacation so we can get rid of our junk and rearrange all the furniture into a setting that is unfriendly to rodents.
So-to those of you in your uninfested homes, I hope that thinking about my plight gives you just a few bad dreams. And make sure you keep the soles of your feet…covered.

Family Review #1 Scooby Doo

Okay, before I get started today, I thought that I would explain that I have decided to occasionally put a Family Review on this blog. Does this mean I am reviewing different families? Not at all. I chose to call it a Family Review because of my experiences with a blog called Random Reviewer which is at times highly amusing, and at other times, offensive. I don't want to have anything offensive on my blog, so I am focusing the things I review on things for families. Granted, most of the things I am going to choose to review are going to pertain to families with young children since that is the kind of family I have right now. So on to today's review.

Old Scooby Doo Shows vs What's New Scooby Doo and/or

Old Scooby Doo Movies vs New Scooby Doo Movies

I am a Scooby Doo Fan. I am not a Scooby Doo Freak, but I am a fan. I enjoy watching Scooby Doo with my kids. I was very excited when they started putting Scooby Doo on DVD. In fact, the first DVD we ever got was Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase. It was a Christmas gift along with our first DVD player. We were already fans of Scooby Doo at our house because we had rented some SD videos (out of laziness I am going to put SD in place of Scooby Doo) previously.

I am not going to go into a deep history of Scooby Doo or its many incarnations. I am just going to make a few comparisons of the old to the new...and give my opinions on them.

Comparison #1. Animation

Of course it seems a little unfair to compare the animation quality of older days to current trends. I am going to do it anyhow. Again, I am not going to go into any great depth here, but I will say that although I loved Scooby Doo as a child, and I still have a nostalgic soft spot for the old episodes and movies in my heart, the old animation tends to drive me crazy. The main reason for this, is the way they drew their eyes in the old series...there are no whites to the eyes, and they are basically drawn as just a dot with a squiggle around. Scooby, and strangely some of the villains are the only ones with whites in their eyes. The colors and depth in the old vs the new is also flat. The newer animation has more depth and better color. Its just plain better in every way.

Comparison #2. Plot

Well, I have to say that many plots in both the old and the new are similar. They were built on the same formula. I would say though that the lack of a laugh track on the new series is a good thing. Also that in general the new Scooby Doo has a bit more depth, and better...everything. Its less hokey than the original, although still hokey because it is, after all, a kids show.

Comparison #3. Music

I like the chase music in the What's New Scooby Doo and the more modern SD movies more than what they used in the older ones. The chase songs are one of our favorite things about it in our family, and we would love to see a CD put out of the various chase songs used in the show. The songs in both the newer movies and the newer TV show tend to have more to do with the setting of the show...such as having a Celtic flair in the SD and the Loch Ness Monster movie, and in episodes that take place in Europe and etc, some of the songs are even in other languages. The Old SD had chase songs sometimes, but often reused the same ones, and the music just didn't have the same personality of the newer fare.

Comparison #4. Wardrobe.

Some of the basics have remained similar, like the colors they wear. But there are some subtle changes in the wardrobe of Velma, and more obvious changes in Fred and Daphne, the most noticeable being in that Fred does not wear his ascot. He does, occasionally refer to it in some of the movies. He even tries wearing an ascot in SD and the Loch Ness Monster, and compliments his cyber self's ascot in Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase. In fact you can see the old right next to the new as the new gang meets computer versions of their old selves in that movie. Shaggy and Scooby have the least amount of change, and Daphne has lost her green scarf and gone more subtle with complementing shades of purple. I think that the old styles were fine for the era they were made in, and the new styles are good for today. I personally like Fred's style better now, but I still find myself missing the ascot at times, because it was just Fred.

Comparison #5. The Characters

For the most part they have stayed true to the original characters in SD. Fred still comes up with some whacky plan or trap, Velma still figures everything out, Shaggy and Scooby are still more interested in food than anything else, and still afraid of everything. Daphne is still vain, and fashionable. The only real changes aside from their wardrobe, that I can find in the characters, is that they have made Fred a little more blonde (not literally, but mentally) and Daphne, although still danger prone, is also more self sufficient and able to defend herself. I am sure that if I wanted to spend a few days really watching the shows and comparing them, I could come up with more, but this is kind of an off the top of my head kind of review.

Comparison #6. The Mystery Machine

A character in and of itself, the Mystery Machine is an important part of SD. For the most part it has stayed the same apart from a few tweaks here and there. One exception is that in Scooby Doo and the Alien Invaders, the Mystery Machine was actually a mystery minivan. That was kind of weird, and I was glad when they took it back to a more familiar format. When we first moved here I even saw a "Mystery Machine" or a van painted like it for sale. For a moment I even thought it would be cool to buy it. I still have to wonder though, how expensive it had to be for them to take that van to Europe and other places. And what do they do for money anyhow? In the original series they implied that Daphne's rich Dad took care of money things. And they have mentioned a few things in the new movies, like Velma working for NASA, and Daphne writing for a magazine or having her own fashion line. I can see SD and Shaggy being food testers/tasters, but they I can't remember the series ever really implying a job for Shaggy or for Fred. I may have to study this further.

To wrap things up...

I prefer the newer SD shows to the older ones. Don't even get me started on the Scrappy Years, because I hardly count those at all. Sadly, they are not producing What's New Scooby Doo anymore, but are following their old trend of moving on to a Scooby and Shaggy based show as they did in the early years. Myself I have always found that the shows with the whole gang were the best. Hopefully they will continue to make a new animated movie each year (the newer movies are basically extended episodes of What's New SD.) In fact, there is a new one coming out next month. All in all, I recommend any SD to be good family fare. We even enjoyed the live action ones, although not as much as the cartoons. The cartoons can even be considered somewhat educational, and its fun to guess who the villain is in each episode. They also hold decidedly less violence than many cartoons out these days, and the nostalgia aspect is there whether you are watching the old or the new. Either way, SD is like an old family friend who has come for a visit. We recommend them.

P.S. We have also started collecting A Pup Named Scooby Doo on DVD. It was a show that ran from the late 80s to 1991. I never saw it when it was on TV, since those were my high school years, but we have enjoyed them now anyhow. There are four volumes out so far that include four episodes on each and they follow the gang's junior high years. Sadly, since they are too young to drive, the mystery machine is absent.

Horror of Horrors!

I had every intention of doing my blog when it was due...Monday the 21st...but Alas! The 21st of August 2006 died 30 minutes ago. Midnight just snuck right up on me, and then passed me by. So I have already broken my cardinal rule of writing at least every other day. I feel terrible. To make up for it I will blog two days in a row, so I can get back on track. I hope I can think of something suitably interesting to blog about. Maybe now I will change my rule to writing an average of every other day...then I don't have to feel bad.

They come to your house now...

The world is no longer a safe place. You can't just sit at home and enjoy the peace and quiet and not have anyone bother you.
It starts with the telephone. Our phone rings several times a day...and 95% of the time, its either a sales person, or a recording of a sales person, or some person asking for a donation for something. I got tired of answering the phone all the time, and getting asked for money. I don't have a lot of extra money to throw around, and if I am unhappy with my phone company, or my TV reception, or if I decide I want to refinance my house, then I will get up and I will do the research, and I will find out what I need to do to get what I want.
Why is it that these sales people think they can keep on calling you up and that you are just sitting at home waiting for them to tell you their newest and greatest deal of the week? I honestly wonder if a lot of the people that do switch phone companies really do it to save a buck or two, or if they just think they might get a few weeks of peace from the phone calls by switching, before the company they switched from figures it out and starts calling them up and asking them to switch back.
I think I am a salesperson's nightmare...long distance...I use a calling card, and its cheaper than any of their plans, plus it ensures that none of my five kids can pick up the phone, dial randomly and end up talking to someone in France. Calling card...its cheap, its convenient, and I have it memorized, so I can go anywhere and use anyone's phone, or a pay phone, AND its prepaid, so I can spend just what I want to spend on it every month...and I don't get any surprises. I am also a pro at just shutting people down. I just cut them off mid-sentence and tell them no. No I don't want another credit card, Nooooo we just finished refinancing our house and are not looking to do it again right now, and NO! I don't want cable or satellite TV. Still, I have gotten tired of talking to these people at all. And then there is the other side of the whole thing... The ones that call asking for donations. Of course I feel bad for people with cancer, and of course I want to support the volunteer firefighters, and yes, I think the children's hospital is deserving of a donation. But, I am not made of money, and I have generally found myself to be a sucker for sad causes. So I stopped answering my phone. I am also an untrusting person. Let me tell you, that I have no guarantee that the person talking to me on the phone is really a volunteer calling to get donations for the police, the fire department or anywhere else. Yes, they send you an envelope with a letterhead and all that, but you know what? Those can be faked too. So I am not going to commit to any donations over the phone anyhow. I know where I can find the information if I want to just send out a donation to a worthy cause...and I donate frequently to my church. People are still calling me though. Even though I don't answer the phone anymore, they are calling. Every morning at the same time in fact...the phone rings...and I don't answer it. And they don't leave a message. I have told my friends and family that I don't answer the phone, so they know to leave a message and that I will pick up if I have a free hand and if the volume of kids yelling and screaming is low enough for me to have a conversation on the phone. I have gotten to the point that I am ready to pick up the phone, and tell the salespeople, or the donation begging people to take me off their lists and leave me alone.
The other day, I am sitting at the computer, checking the email, or reading a blog or something, and there is a knock at the front door. Normally I can't hear a knock at the front door, but since the computer sits right next to the window that is at our front porch, I heard. I looked up, and there, just visible through the slats of the mini blinds, is a white polo shirt, and the dish network logo.
Great. Here I am in my PJs, and not too excited, but I am sure he can tell I am home, so I go into the library room (the reason I can't hear the front door most of the time is that it opens into a small room that we use for the library and there is a second door between that room and the rest of the house). I open the front door, and peek around the edge, keeping my plaid PJ bottoms and garishly neon T-shirt out of sight. He starts his "We are in the neighborhood.." spiel, which I cut off. Actually, it was remarkably like a phone conversation.
"We are offering some good deals in your area." he says
"We aren't interested."
"Do you have cable?" he asks
"No. We had it before, but we moved here and didn't want cable anymore. We don't even watch regular broadcast TV."
"We have some really good deals, as low as $20."
"We don't want to bring all the sleaze that comes with it into our house, no matter how cheap it is"
"Bla,bla,blah"
"We don't want it."
"Okay, thanks."
So the world is not safe...they couldn't get me to answer the phone, so they have to come and bother me while I am in my PJs (although that one wasn't really the dish network's fault since it was almost lunchtime...I just had a slow start that day.) I just want to be left alone. Friends and family are welcome, but anyone who is looking to sell something...please just stay on the other side of the street. I am not buying today...

To Blog or Not to Blog...

I had a topic all lined up to blog about today. In fact, I almost wrote the blog yesterday and saved it to publish today. Now I wish that I had. Because I had a busy day, and now its the end of that busy day, and I have to publish a blog before the end of it. Within the hour. Of course, that gives me plenty of time to do my blog...but I would rather be sitting back, eating chocolate and enjoying a video or DVD while snuggled up on the couch with my husband...
Some things are just more important than blogging. (And technically, since I posted this, I did post within my every other day time limit...its just a boring post today.)
See you next time...couch, chocolate, husband...here I come.

The Things Kids Say...

Okay, I am not resorting to cute kid stories out of having nothing to write about, but because this particular one is fresh in my mind, and I want to write about it before it fades.
We have a small, but rich history in our little family of our kids saying interesting things. This is true in most families, and I am sure that there are a ton of hilarious things I should have written down when they happened, but never did. I bet I could have had a best seller, or at least a well circulated email that would still be around when I am a great grandmother. Unfortunately I don’t find a lot of time to write things down (until now since I am making myself write in this blog every other day). My children won’t know the exact date they took their first steps, ate their first cheerios or lost their first tooth. I just don’t keep track of those things. I know…so sue me. But I also don’t think about when I did those things either…I don’t call my Mom up in the middle of the night and say “Hey Mom, what day was it that I got that first haircut?” Frighteningly enough, I think that info might actually be in my baby book. My kids don’t have baby books…so I am behind…again…sue me. I keep track of things by remembering approximations. You walked at about 10 months…this has been easy since they all walked about at about 10 months except J who walked at 8 months, and I can say that surely because he took his first walk that I counted as walking (ten steps or more) on the day before Halloween, which was two days after he turned 8 months. I am sure he will be thrilled to know the exact date, and his life will be suddenly fulfilled.
Back on topic now; Kids saying cute things…in this case…I am going to address cute things (okay, that word cute is starting to annoy me…lets say…interesting things instead) that they have said during their prayers. We have family prayer on a daily basis, and the kids have their own personal prayers, and we pray at meals. We take turns saying family prayer, basically we each get one day of the week since there are seven of us. We help the kids when they are younger, and when they feel confident we let them take the reigns so to speak. C, who is three, will not say anything but the opening and closing part by himself. He wants to be helped. K, who is four started out saying the basic same thing every time…something along the lines of…Heavenly Father, thank thee for this day, please help us be good, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. The only real change was at meals when he would add, “Bless the food” in the middle someplace. It was sweet to hear him pray. Now, however, he has added a little bit more of his own personality. The amusing thing to us is that he says the prayers very earnestly, and doesn’t know how amusing it is to us. We have to hide our smiles, and we are glad that he keeps his eyes closed during the prayer. Tonight he started out with the same old routine, but all of a sudden he said something about helping us bounce balls higher, then he prayed that no one would fall into a hole if they found one, and that his Grandpa L would let us come in the next time we go to his house. I am not sure where he got the idea that Grandpa L would not let us in, he always has in the past. As for the holes, I think that comes from Saturday when we went to pick Blueberries and I put my foot in a hole and fell down. I can’t be positive though. The ball bouncing of course is just something he enjoys. After he was done praying, our six year old yelled at him for praying that no one would fall down a hole because we might not be able to find any buried treasure if we can’t go down a hole once we find one. K has also, in the past, prayed for Jesus to make us lots of good food. This always makes me smile because I picture the Saviour coming to cook us dinner. T on the other hand (the six year old) says basically the same thing every night. Pretty close to the beginner’s prayer, but with, please help us not to hurt people and please help us not to have bad dreams added in there. Tonight he also added… “Please help us not to be rude like big stupid heads.”
Just a week or so ago, our 7 year old (almost 8) S, collided with C while playing, and C bit his own tongue and was bleeding a lot. This scared S and he was hiding behind a chair while I cleaned C up. When everything was taken care of, I told S that everything was okay, and he said that he had been praying that whole time (several minutes) and that he was able to pray for that long because he said please a lot. When S wants something badly he has been known to repeat the word please over and over during a prayer, usually until we nudge him or let him know somehow that he has said it more than enough times. S is great at praying. He makes sure that he asks some blessing on each family member each time he prays. I remember once, S prayed that J would be a good leader like S (J is his older brother by 18 months); Such humility in a child. But really, S wasn’t aware that he sounded so full of himself when he prayed that. He really wanted J to be more like him. I am not sure how J felt about him saying it though.
It gives me comfort though, that my kids are willing to talk to God like they would to anyone. I don’t mean that they talk to him with disrespect, but like He is real to them. I would much rather hear K pray that no one falls into a hole, than have him just repeat the same rote things over and over. He is learning to have conversations with Deity, and that is pretty amazing in itself.

Does Pain Equal Happiness?

My husband brought this subject up today...not in those exact words, but he was talking about why people think that seeing other people get hurt is humorous. Take for example, America's Funniest Home Videos. I haven't seen that show for a long time, but I imagine that it still has a lot of face plants, slips, trips and painful looking accidents. Why do we find these things amusing? If you took these videos to a third world country...would they find it funny or is this just some kind of civilized reaction to seeing pain? I am curious to know. I wonder if someone could get a research grant for something like that? I don't think its a purely American thing, since British comedies are rife with physical comedy also (physical comedy should be translated as pain).
Is this a natural reaction? Or is it learned? I have no idea, but if its learned it appears to be learned at an early age, because my kids seem to find this kind of thing amusing, and I don't remember teaching them to laugh at things like that. On the other hand, is it a male thing? These are questions that someone must know the answer to.
I have noticed through witnessing situations that are amusing to some people, that the person that goes through the pain, is usually not amused by it. Perhaps some would mistake their embarrassment for amusement, but generally I think that they are just in pain, and embarrassed that there are witnesses to that pain. So, its pretty safe to say that inflicting pain on yourself will not bring you happiness. It doesn't seem like inflicting pain on another person purposely will bring you happiness either. However...witnessing an accident, or better yet, pain that has come from an unwise decision or activity on the part of someone else, seems to make us feel better. Maybe that is why people laugh. They see someone trying to show off on a skateboard for their friends do a faceplant, and they think to themselves "I would never do anything that dumb." This is an instant boost to their personal self esteem, and makes them feel superior to the poor person that is on their way to the emergency room. They see someone braving the cold winter weather, slip on a patch of ice, and fall on their rear end, and the witness is suddenly more grateful to be where they are, and not falling on their own rear. Seeing the misfortunes of others does seem to give a kind of comfort to those who don't have misfortunes themselves. We all go through those times though. Most everyone has had some painful or embarrassing incident, where they were the one that everyone was staring at and/or laughing at. So is it human nature to forget about our own past embarrassments when we see someone else going through it themselves? What has happened to compassion? I am not sure. But I am going to think twice the next time I see someone trip and fall, or ride their bike into a tree. Of course I won't be able to help feeling glad that I am not the one going through the pain, but maybe I will be brave enough to offer a hand up to them, or to apply first aid, or just a word of encouragement. I hope that my children will grow up to be compassionate rather than callous, and that they will also be able to find some humor in their own misfortunes rather than the misfortunes of others.

Children, the Great Manipulators

I remember an occasion when I was a young adult, still living at home. My sister had dropped my niece off, to be babysat by my parents, and my niece was whining about something. I don't remember what it was, but I do remember feeling bad for her, and wanting to give her whatever it was that she thought she needed at the time. I also remember my Dad being very annoyed by the whole thing and saying something to the effect that "All children are manipulative." I don't remember the exact words he used other than that, but the impression I got was that children were these crafty little creatures whose every action was designed to get something out of an unsuspecting adult. How horrible! I thought, for my Dad to think such a thing about such a cute and sweet little toddler. How sad that he has such a cynical view of life! How hard hearted of him not to soften up after listening to her sobs and seeing the tears. What a jerk...(my Dad, not my niece).
Fast forward to about 15 years and five children later. I have a new understanding and a new point of view. I am a parent. I have five sons. I hear more than I can personally process of whining, crying, screaming and fighting every day. Like most parents when I first had children, I melted a little inside and became a mushy, gushy fool. This is a natural reaction to the innocence of a new baby. They are helpless to do anything for themselves, and even their little cries are hardly offensive when they are first born, because they hardly have the power in their lungs to get loud. I still find the weak little cries of a newborn to be somewhat cute, and endearing. I don't, and have never really minded holding a screaming baby. I am secure enough to do what I can do, and if I can't make them happy, then I let them cry. I have even been generally patient with the toddler set and the tantrums that go along with that age group. I find that when I can't reason with them, I can be very good at ignoring the screaming until it stops.
My children, however have grown. My youngest son is now three years old. He would like to pretend that he is still a baby, and he often acts like a baby. I am much less sympathetic to his crying though, when I see that he stops every so often to check my reaction; And how hard he squeezes his eyes to make those few tears leak out. I also have a hard time when crying, tantrum throwing and etc have not disappeared as my boys have gotten older. My nine year old is still prone to waterworks when he can't get his way, and for me, the more they cry over something, the less likely I am to become sympathetic to their plight. The crying has turned into a way to manipulate me. Of course there are times when the tears are genuine, (I am not that jaded yet), but often its a way to try to push me in the direction they want me to go, and it doesn't ever work for them. I wonder if its just that first two years of training when we respond to their crying that makes them think that it will keep working, or if there are other wheels turning in their minds.
Crying isn't the only form of manipulation available to kids. Guilt is another big one. Just last night my six year old son came to me with this woefully sad expression on his face and a handful of change. "If I give you this money from my piggy bank will you let us play pictionary?" Of course he asks me right when I am in the middle of something, and his Dad is not home because he is out with two of the kids at Tae Kwon Do lessons. The living room isn't clean (a rule for game playing in general at our house is that the living room has to be clean), and the only other kids there are his nine year old brother, and the three year old that can't read or draw yet. So of course I declined his request and told him to wait for Daddy and the other boys to get home. Then he holds out the money and says "Please, just let us have some fun." I told him to put his money away and that he didn't have to pay me to let him have fun. After all he had plenty of toys to play with, and videos to watch, and crayons, pencils and papers to color with. Even while I was telling him that he didn't have to pay me to get to have fun, I was beginning to feel guilty. Was I not paying enough attention to them? Did we not have fun enough things to do? Should I take them outside or to the park more? Well-to tell you the truth I probably should take them outside and to the park more. I am not perfect. I was feeling pretty bad by the time I went to bed that night...pretty much like the worst parent on earth. My poor little kid was willing to give up all that loose change and tooth fairy money out of his piggy bank if I would just let him have...a...little....fun...! How horrible of me! Where have my priorities been? What could I do to make it up to him!
Then this morning, he came into my room, and he had a penny that his brother gave him. I told him to put it away with his piggy bank money, and this is what he says to me. "That money I tried to give you last night wasn't actually from my piggy bank. I found it in your room on the floor." Kind of puts things in a new perspective doesn't it? The kid was trying to bribe me with my own money, and I almost fell for it. Of course it did make me rethink my priorities and about spending more time with my kids, so it wasn't all bad, but still...I think I owe you an apology Dad. Maybe you were right, or maybe I have just joined you in your cynical and jaded point of view. Either way, I don't think you are a jerk, and I am sorry I ever did.

What is wrong with this picture?

What is wrong with the world today? It seems like 95% of news reports have to do with violence, crime, and depressing topics. Sometimes its nice to escape from the depression and just spend some time together away from all of that. In our family we like to watch movies together. We don't watch regular TV, we don't get good reception where we are, and we are unwilling to bring cable TV with all of the sleaze that goes with it into our home, so we are TV free as far as network and cable TV go. We have a VCR, a DVD player, and a collection of videos. We also enjoy renting movies from our local video store. This has become increasingly difficult. Either the shows we are willing to rent are too boring, or too grown up for the kids, or too dumbed down for us. We usually end up renting two separate movies, one for us, one for the kids. We are limited in our scope of choices, because we don't rent movies with sex scenes, with a high rate of crass, sexual humor or innuendo, or with too much swearing. We don't watch rated R movies under any circumstance, and we avoid movies with immorality in general. Just going into the video store often makes me cringe, because at every turn there is the cover of some video depicting immorality, murder or other violence, or scantily clad women. My husband won't even go in to pick out a movie...that is all up to me. He doesn't want to see any of that either.
My question is...do we really live in a world where people find murder, rape, violence and immoral behaviour to be entertaining? I think we do. Reality TV has made a big splash, and a great many of those shows center around whoever can lie the best, and cheat the best winning. Yes, we reward people for lying, dishonest, and untrustworthy behaviour. We pay them money, and we send them to Letterman or Leno to be interviewed and praised for their lying abilities. There are a number of shows that center around crime, murder and etc, and there is plenty of fodder there for any number of plots involving those things. Does it desensitize us as a society to see murders, autopsies, muggings, etc glorified every week on the screen? I think it does. I think we can read about a brutal murder in the paper, and its just not that big of a deal anymore. Think about it for a minute...really think about it. How would you feel if all of those stories we watch for entertainment were true? Some of them are. Things like that happen every day. Is that entertaining?
What happened to the good, clean family films? Many of the films today that are touted as family films are full of double entendres that go right over a little kid's head, but slap their parents in the face. And what happens when a kid gets old enough to understand that something means more than they think, but they don't know quite what it means, so they ask? Well, I can tell you that its becoming a more common occurrence in our house as our kids get older, and its uncomfortable for us as parents. We want our kids to stay as pure and as innocent as they can for as long as they can. This also goes for swearing...why do so many good, clean movies have the Lord's name in vain? It's so unnecessary to the plot. I shouldn't have to teach, and then RE-teach my four year old not to take God's name in vain. So we are looking for those really clean, family friendly movies. There aren't many out there. We do own several DVDs and movies. We have a list of movies we enjoy as a family. We try to rent movies to add variety, but as I said, there are few out there that fit the bill.
I read a CNN report that said the following: "The average G-rated film made between 1989 and 2003 produced more than 11 times greater profit than its R-rated counterpart, $79 million vs. $7 million, even though the movie industry produced nearly 12 times more R-rated films than G-rated films" If you would like to read the entire report it can be viewed here... http://money.cnn.com/2005/06/07/news/newsmakers/dove_movies/index.htm
I would like to submit a challenge to Hollywood, to make a movie, (or better yet, many movies)that have a good plot, that don't have any unnecessary swearing (and pretty much all swearing is unnecessary to me), that are morally clean, that teach something of value, and yet, are entertaining. Please leave out the crass (and stupid) humor, and give us something worth paying money to see.
And now I will part this particular entry with a list of some movies that we enjoy at our house. They are not perfect...anyone can find fault with something if they look hard enough. But they are movies that we enjoy, and that we own as well.
National Treasure
Nanny McPhee
Sky High
What a Girl Wants
Princess Diaries
Harry Potter Movies
Chicken Little
Pride and Prejudice (both the Kiera Knightley version, and the Kam Heskin version-which is the modernized version found in the family section at our Video store and has ZERO swearing)
Princess Bride
Holes
Jumanji
The Kid
Remember the Titans
Secondhand Lions
Star Wars (4, 5, and 6)
Peter Pan (the live action version)
Lilo and Stitch
That Thing You Do
Scooby Doo 2 Monsters Unleashed
High School Musical (we all like this one a lot. Sure its not going to win best picture but we like the music, the dancing and it just makes us feel good...and there is ZERO swearing, and ZERO innuendo)
We also enjoy various Scooby Doo cartoon movies, What's new Scooby Doo TV series on DVD, Spongebob Squarepants, Veggie Tales, Doc Season One, The Cosby Show seasons 1 and 2, and more. We also own 7th Heaven season 1, and Smallville seasons 1-3 (we stopped watching after that season because they ruined the show with sleaze, and there are episodes in the seasons we own that we won't be watching again, this is also a grown-ups only show at our house).
Now I am not trying to sound better than anyone else. I have been known to watch shows that have some violence, that involve investigations into murders, and etc. I have my own shortcomings. But I would like to see more out there that I can watch with my kids, and that I can watch just myself, that make me feel good when I turn the TV off. Shows and movies that make me think the world is a better place, and not a nightmarishly scary one.

Blogger's Block...Prepare for boredom

What should I blog about today? That is the question. Its a good question, and the answer is...I just don't know. So I think I will blog about having nothing to blog about. Of course I can always fall back on some cute story anecdote involving one or more of my five sons, but that would make me feel like I was desperate for something to write about. I am sure that in the future I will use one or more of these kid stories to blog, but I want it to be because I want to tell that story, not because I have nothing better to talk about.
I have this goal of blogging every other day in order to have a kind of consistency with my blog. I don't imagine it would matter very much to people if I were to blog less often, since there are only a few people who check this blog anyhow, and I seriously doubt they check it every day, let alone every other day. I just have that every other day goal. I think if I just blog when I feel like it, I will end up going weeks or months, and then people will stop checking my blog and what's the point of having one after that?
I think I have blogger's block. Kind of like writer's block, and yet...not. I can blog about anything, or nothing (as is evidenced by this post). I have many opinions, and I can actually think about many things to write about...but usually I like for one topic to leap off of the page in my head and say BLOG ABOUT ME! That just hasn't happened today, so I am blogging about this instead.
Maybe I should take this opportunity to make a list about potential things to blog about in the future...then I can always come back to this blog for ideas the next time I get stuck for a blog topic. So here goes...feel free to leave any suggestions in the comment section...I would appreciate it. Here is my list:
Play Doh, (who taught them to spell anyhow? Isn't that spelling of doh kind of like that word made popular by Homer Simpson? Does Play Doh have a case against the Simpsons franchise because of copyright infringement using the word doh? Did you know that according to the Oxford English Dictionary the word spelled doh is the first note of a scale...like Doh! A deer, a female deer! Is Play Doh musical?)
Straws: Who invented them, and for what purpose were they invented...for drinking through? Or for breathing through...and if it was for breathing through was the discovery made that they could be used for drinking through after some unfortunate breather accidentally drowned?
Ten Gallon Hats...how come they don't really hold ten gallons? Were they named ten gallon by someone who is mathematically challenged?
Is white chocolate really chocolate? I could do a whole series on the joys and sorrows of chocolate. White chocolate is not really chocolate in my opinion, but its still good...so I guess it can keep the name of chocolate.
How come I can't understand what they are singing in Opera even when its actually sung in English?
Duct Tape...Did you know that they now make Duct Tape bandages? Like a band aid, only with Duct Tape...who would want to put that on their skin? Would it leave a scar when it was removed, or just a sticky residue?
Shaving legs...who invented that? Was it some man who thought it would be more feminine?
Eyelashes...Why do men get the long ones when they don't care? And why do women care?
Crayola vs. Rose Art: The showdown no one wants to see because we already know how it will end.
Toothpaste...what is your favorite? What is mine, and why?
Boy I hope I don't have to use any of these in my next blog...

Children and Shopping go Together like Oil and Water

I try to avoid taking my children shopping. This is a survival technique, not just for myself, but also for my children. I know this, and yet, there are still times when we all go shopping together. When I say we, I mean my husband, our five sons, and myself. This almost always ends in tears. It's only a question of whether the tears are going to belong to my children or to me. I will make a note here that I don't EVER under any circumstances take all five of my children shopping with only me to keep an eye on them. I have on occasion taken up to three of them to a store, but that is where I draw the line, and I only take three under extreme duress.
Today we all went shopping together, in the name of family time. Our shopping adventure began at Deals Only, which is a local shop that, as the name states, has only deals. This means that a lot of the merchandise is junk, but there are occasionally gems of lovely value there. I had forgotten to take the list of things that the boys needed for school supplies when I went shopping at Wal Mart previously. The nearest Wal Mart is over an hour away from where we live, so I decided to check out Deals only and see if the few school supplies I had not gotten yet might be available there. I was able to get most of what I needed, as well as a few other things. The boys were fairly well behaved in the upstairs part of the store, although I do recall having to repeat their names constantly to try to get them to stay with me. Then we went to the downstairs area, of which half of it is toys. This is where things got a little bit out of control. First of all, our second to youngest son K saw this little sword that he thought was cool. K is the king of pretending to be a cool hero, and he couldn't resist picking that sword up and giving it a little swing. CLANG! KACHING!!!!! Imagine his surprise when the thing started making noise! Yes, it was an electronic sword, with great sound effects accompanying every swing and parry. K proceeded to walk around with the sword, accompanied by a constant CLANG, KACHING chorus. He had the biggest grin on his face, and it would have been cute if not for the grating, nerve wrenching noise. Not to be outdone, son #2, (TaeKwonDo son) S picked up another sword, and a stuffed elephant. Then he pretended to cut the head off of the elephant, and the shrieking sound effect that accompanied it was so cool that he had to show it to each of his brothers, repeatedly. Meanwhile middle son T, had found the toy cars and was lining them up on the floor, in a long line, and youngest son C was carrying around a Thomas the Tank Engine toy and didn't look like he was ever going to put it down. Oldest son J was finding interesting things left and right to show us as well. It was all a little bit overwhelming, and I have to tell you, that compared to other shopping excursions we have taken, they were being pretty angelic. Eventually we pried everyone away from their respective interests and got them upstairs (this is where having my husband there came in particularly handy, as he gathered up the stragglers while I went to pay for our purchases.) I had some more errands to do, so believe it or not, we walked to three more stores, and then drove to yet another one, and they were good the whole time! Who says miracles don't happen. Now I will say, that just because things went relatively well today, doesn't mean that I am going to make a habit of taking kids shopping. Generally when I take just one of them, depending on which one it is, I get a lot of whining, and pointing, and begging. So I am all for solo shopping. I always feel a moment of serenity when I am in a store by myself and I see some poor parent with a whiny kid, begging and throwing a fit. I feel a tiny flash of sympathy for the parent, and then a huge wave of gratitude for being there alone. I love my kids, don't get me wrong, but I like the peace and quiet of shopping by myself.

Tae Kwon Do...bringing world peace one kick at a time.

Our second son, who had the opportunity to attend Cub Scout Day Camp last summer, was not able to have the opportunity to attend this year, due to circumstances beyond our personal control. Since he had loved Day Camp so much last year, we decided to offer him a consolation prize. He didn't demand one, he understood the reasons that he wasn't going to be able to go to Camp, but we felt that he deserved to get to do something fun this summer, so we gave him a choice between swimming lessons and Tae Kwon Do. At first he decided on the swimming lessons because, he stated, he was already really good at fighting and could fight his way away from any kidnappers or robbers that might cross his path. He also decided that swimming and Tae Kwon Do had about the same amount of chance of saving his life someday. Soon after that though he changed his mind and went for the Tae Kwon Do option. (That may have had something to do with the potential for a cool uniform and something about Halloween). So a couple of days ago he began his lessons.
First let me say that we are doing this through the Parks and Recreation Program, so its not nearly as expensive as it could be, but its also not nearly as high quality as it could be. He is the only beginner in his class, and it is a mix of kids and adults at varying degrees of advancement. His first class, we arrived, and after he took his shoes off he was able to get his first injury. His instructor was having the little kids (there are four of them including my son) do this kind of running/climbing stairs in place exercise in front of a ledge. Since this was a new exercise to my son, he promptly stubbed his toe repeatedly. He has a tendency to do things really fast when he gets excited and he was trying to keep up with the instructor. He got over the toe stubs relatively quickly and the kids' half of the class moved on to punching a heavy bag repeatedly, then kicking it repeatedly, then working on blocking, front kicks, turn kicks and jumping kicks. I am not sure I have ever seen anyone so excited in my life. He looked a little awkward trying to do some of the moves, but he was trying so hard. He learned important lessons like, don't punch with your thumb tucked in, and that if you goof off you have to do pushups (he learned that second one because of other kids goofing off, he was very attentive to the instructor himself). He had the time of his life. He was glowing!
Myself, I didn't really know too much about Tae Kwon Do other than it's a Korean martial art. I spent the class alternating between watching the kids on one side of the room do their punches, kicks and blocks, and watching the two teens and one grownup on the other side of the room trying to kick each other in the head. I think I have seen too many superhero and action movies where people do their martial arts with the aid of wires, because the sparring didn't look nearly as cool as I thought it would. I did gain a new respect for the people who were sparring because they can kick about five times higher than I can.
At the end of the lesson they repeated some kind of oath of Tae Kwon Do involving world peace and how peace begins with me (me being the student repeating the oath). When I got home I looked up a Tae Kwon Do website and read up on some of the philosophies of it. They do talk a lot about peace, yet had pictures of things like a two guys in Tae Kwon Do uniforms standing in front of a beautifully peaceful mountain lake, while one of them kicked the other one in the face. How is that peaceful? I am just wondering. Maybe they just maintain the peace through intimidation. I wish I could kick that high.

Have you ever noticed that DIE is the key word in Dieting?

Coincidence? I think not.
I have friends and family members that either have been, or are currently, engaged in that epic struggle of man (or woman) vs fat. I myself, as an American consumer have been drafted into this battle or am at least a victim of it due to the sneaky tactics of the fatty enemy (namely Oreos, Ice Cream and other horribly bad for you, yet oh, so delicious, stuff). We are engaged in a war here people! A war to save our very lives, and our quality of living. But here is where the edges of sanity become blurred for me. Which side am I on? I DON"T KNOW! I may be a double agent...or a triple agent! I can't be sure where my loyalties lie. I am NOT to be trusted.
Of course I can see the glorious objective of the dieting and exercising (note the similarity in pronunciation to exorcism-always painful or so I have heard) side of things, the svelte figures, the two, four or six pack abs, the lengthened life spans, the extra energy and vitality that accompanies good health, the reduced medical costs because of reduced illness and disease. These are all wonderful things, and well worth fighting for. But alas, I find myself torn. Why you might ask? Because of missing out on some flavor? Some mood food? Well, yes actually. That IS part of why I am torn. But also, because the very foundation of my entire upbringing, was based on food. Not the whole wheat, low sugar, carob kinds of food (although you might be surprised to find out that I was well exposed to those foods as a child) but rather many of my earliest and best childhood memories revolve around food. Good family times spent gathered around the family hearth (which of course was the Television) with some wonderfully healthy popcorn (slathered in an UNhealthy amount of butter or margarine and generously doused in salt). Oreo cookies, cracker jacks, ice cream, cheetos, chips or crackers and clam dip, root beer floats, the list goes on and ON! I can tell you that one of my very earliest (and best) memories involved going to the Auto parts store with my Dad when I was about four years old, and on the way back stopping at this bakery for these pastries that were shaped like a figure 8 (I remember thinking they were like a racetrack) with jelly in the middle section of each side. I also remember getting to have twinkies at the babysitter's house. Its one of the few pleasant memories I have of daycare. Is Thanksgiving about sitting around the table with your family and being so grateful for everything? Of course, but its also about that turkey, fresh out of the oven and and that crispy, fat dripping skin that is just waiting to be eaten. Its about pies, and mashed potatoes whipped with butter, and eating two full meals, and then going back to pick at the leftovers every two hours, and the great conversations you have when you run into other family members who are also raiding the fridge at the same time. Christmas is about candy and cookies, and gingerbread houses, and all the wonderful foods you can think of. Its also about giving, and about love, but a lot of the giving I can remember is taking those cookies, and candies and delivering them to friends and family, and how much it sucks to hear that someone is dieting and won't be able to enjoy the food you brought them. Really, dieting isn't that much different than dying is it? Because when you die you don't get to enjoy the food anymore either.
Its not just about sugary dessert things either...this whole dieting thing. Although I have to admit that I have the hardest time giving up the sugary things. Still...Broccoli to me, was meant to be eaten in a large pool of cheese sauce, or if its raw, dipped in a vat of ranch dressing. Zucchini is meant to be battered, deep fried and dusted with Parmesan cheese, then dipped in the previously mentioned vat of ranch dressing. Mozzarella cheese, although great on its own, is even better when treated like zucchini. Baked potatoes are wonderful when properly dressed, this includes butter, sour cream, bacon, cheese and chili.
I have yet to find someone who is dieting who is also truly happy about it. Of course they are thrilled or at least satisfied with the results, but I don't hear them looking forward to their next meal. I imagine that family gatherings may be dreaded because either they have to watch everyone else enjoy the food they wish they could be enjoying, or they give in and feel guilt for the next month about it. One of my sisters gave up making berry pies and jam this year for her diet. That's a whole year of berrydom down the drain...a year that can never be recovered. My parents went on this diet a while ago (more than a year I think) but they fell off the wagon, and even though they had been feeling so good about how they felt physically, the food just called them back. My Dad has now given up sugar again, and I know that he has done it for good reasons. I support him in his endeavors, I hope he can win the war. I do think he misses getting to eat chocolate though.
Me, I am overweight. Not monstrous, but bigger than I should be. Yes, I feel low of energy, and I remember the days when I was in shape and how great it was to be in shape. Yes, I long to be in shape again. Yes, I want to live a long and full life, and grow old, and still be dancing at 90. So that should put me squarely in the camp of the dieters shouldn't it? However, I also want to make holiday goodies with my children, and when they want me to try their cookies, or their chocolate truffles or toffee, I don't want to say-"Sorry, Mommy is on a diet." I want to churn out special meals for family gatherings. I want people to look forward to what food I might bring next. I like to cook, and I like to be praised for my skills at it, and I have not found a low fat or low sugar recipe yet that will get me the kind of raves that chocolate marshmallow cookies with chocolate frosting will. I want to enjoy life, but I don't want to always be worrying about if I can have something, or if it will undo all the progress I have made. I don't want to miss a year of berry pies, or buying my favorite flavor of Tillamook ice cream that is only out on limited release and hasn't been sold in stores for two years. (Cookie dough if you were wondering-get it while you can.)
The kicker for me is that once you enlist on the diet and exercise side of the war, you are a lifetime soldier. There is no going back. Of course there are days you are losing the battle, but once you really sign on you have to be prepared to go the distance. You have to be relentless, you have to keep on pushing at it, because if you stop, if you slip, and aren't able to catch yourself then you are suddenly undoing all that you have accomplished. Dieting is an uphill battle. Its so easy to lose your footing and end up back where you started or worse. I am not sure that I can take that kind of pressure. I will have to keep thinking about it for a little while longer. While I am thinking about it, I may as well have something tasty to comfort me. So I will say, pass the ice cream, but I will also add, just a small bowl please.