knees

In yet another vignette on my community I have to share with you an overheard conversation in the parking lot of a store this week. I wasn't trying to eavesdrop, I was unable to avoid hearing the conversation as it was said quite loudly as if everyone was meant to hear it.

Two women, both middle-aged and overweight, got out of a car next to mine and slowly started walking in. One of them was walking with great difficulty, and she explained to her companion, who apparently had been in the car with her but was just now hearing this news, that her doctor had told her, "my knees are just give out." She went on to loudly tell her friend more details with, "you know how your kneecap is supposed to stay put when you stand on one foot? Well mine just goes in all directions." She went on to stop in the middle of the parking lot and demonstrate this amazing feat for her friend, who seemed sympathetic, but clearly had no advice to offer, as she remained mute.

For myself, I've actually tried to see if my own kneecap will "go in all directions." I haven't had any luck with it, thankfully, so I guess I can't classify it as "all give out."

Got all your eggs in one basket

Here are the spoils from this morning's Easter Egg Hunt at our church. The good news was that there was a "bouncy castle" for them to burn off some serious sugar at the event.

Career Day

It was career week at my daughter's school this week. Parents were asked to volunteer to come to school and describe their job/career for the class. Both The Reenactor and I went on different days to describe our jobs, and a few other parents did as well. So imagine my happiness when MG came home wearing this nametag on her shirt.

She was very excited about it and wants to wear it next time we go to Wally World. Both The Reenactor and I found it ironic and amusing that this was one of her favorite "favors" of the week.

I'm sure you've seen or heard this from other sources, but as part of my job description to the kids I printed out a dozen major corporation logos for them to identify. They knew every logo, even not-so-kid oriented logos like Gap, Dell Computers, and Major League Baseball. The only logo none of them knew was Campbell's Soup. I had just the word Campbell's in the script writing. I'm sure if I had used the entire can they would have known it.

Perpetual Motion

I took my kids bowling yesterday. PE had been begging me almost daily to go bowling for a month now, but the weather has been too nice to go into a smoke-filled bowling alley, so I've put him off. But it rained yesterday, so we bowled. Actually, they bowled. Small children get a bowling advantage of having metal "bumpers" put into the gutters to keep the ball on the alley and it makes the game much less frustrating for them. Adults are not allowed to bowl in the bumper alleys because we would probably wreck the bumpers.

I was watching PE, who was very excited about doing this and here is my observation: The reason he is so fit is that he is perpetually in motion. He hustles at bowling...not a sport one typically associates the sports term "hustle" with. He grabbed his neon-green ball from the ...the thing where the ball comes up from the back of the bowling alley... and RUNS to the beginning of his lane and THROWS the ball, then stands there hopping up and down in excitement over watching it go, then RUNS back to the ball thing, gets his ball, runs back to the alley, throws it a second time, jumps up and down in excitement again. Even when MG was playing he BROUGHT THE BALL TO HER. She needs not even to move from the beginning of the lane....PE brings her ball to her. And while she is bowling, he hops around behind her as a sort of miniature bowling cheerleader!

Next time you go bowling, play it like Packer...you'll burn a lot more calories, and it might be a lot more fun.

Back on my soapbox

It has been a few postings since I have ranted about corporations, so sit back and put your virtual safety belt on.

I'm in a book club and our March selection was "Fast Food Nation" -- a book which explains how the major fast food companies have drastically altered virtually every aspect of our country. First note....if you have not read this book you should just to educate yourself; or watch the documentary on DVD. One of the most disturbing parts of the book for me is how these corporations have changed the agriculture business. What used to be a country of family-owned farms is now almost exclusively a country of corporate-controlled, mass-production farms. I was already aware of this, but reading this book gave me so much more information into just how bad the "growing" process...whether it is milk, beef, chicken or produce....is. We are poisoning ourselves, and our children, with artificially fattened, or anti-biotic injected hamburgers and chicken nuggets. Even the milkshakes are so full of artificial ingredients to simulate the ultimate taste and smell of strawberries or bananas or whatever fruit you think you are getting in your shake, that it is scary. Again, I vaguely knew most of this, but reading it in this book brought it to my attention in a much more alarming way.

This book is a great companion piece to watching "supersize me" which portrays the consumer side of the fast food industry, and how it affects our health, eating patterns, childhood obesity epidemic, etc.

I'll stop going on and on about this at this point because I know most of my blog readers are already pretty well educated about this already, but I just wanted to encourage those of you friends or family who haven't read this book to do so.

The question was asked at book club last night (after we all found ourselves completely disgusted with all these corporations) "how can just one person change all this?" One answer was that we chose to shop locally as often as possible....to buy bread from a local bakery downtown; to buy produce from the Farmer's Market when it opens soon; to support the locally-owned restaurants (which are way better than the chain restaurants anyway), and to truly think about each purchase you make, and where the product comes from.

For the Fillmer Record....I quoted my Organic Farmin' niece quite often during this meeting! You've made a huge influence on me, Shley!

Sometimes you just need to roll up your window

I was sitting in the car-riders pickup line at my child's school today. On warm days when I can roll my windows down while I wait I can always "enjoy" what is going on in the cars around me. One day last fall I got to enjoy second-hand pot smoke from a Tokin' Momma in a mini-van listening to Pink Floyd (I kid you not). Some days I get to listen to the rantings of conservative commentators, which usually forces me to roll up my windows. Some days I have unfortunately parked next to a POS car with rattly speakers in the trunk thumpin' rap. Turned out that was the aunt of one of my daughter's classmates.

Today however I was in for a real treat. The vehicle next to me was a farm truck. How do I know the driver was a farmer? Well, let's just say his attire and accouterments in the truck hinted at his vocation. Before I go any farther, I have NOTHING against farmers...I love 'em as a matter of fact. Anyway...the farm truck was occupied by two adults and a baby. A baby in a car seat, in all likelihood not tethered to the actual truck. I was wondering in glancing over at them where they were going to put any more passengers (the child they were waiting to pick up) in the vehicle. But, they had their windows down and were playing a fun local country station with lots of good music issuing forth, so I enjoyed it while I thumbed through a catalog and chatted with PE. Well, the two adults must have been enjoying some carbonated beverages because they commenced to burpin'. And they burped, and they burped. What really got me, other than this was gross to listen to, was that they weren't doing it to amuse each other...neither of them laughed or joked around after the burps; nor did they ever mutter a "sorry" to each other. They were just burping to burp....the kind you do when you're all alone in your car and you don't have to answer to anyone. The kind my mother used to do at almost every family meal, followed by a horrified "OH!"

As they pulled ahead of me in line I saw that their vehicle was decorated with a camo-designed "ribbon" to support our troops; and a bumper sticker that read "keep honkin' -- I'm still reloading"

Ah....the rarified air of my community.

Journal

My oldest child brought home her "journal" from school today. It is a notebook she and her classmates have been keeping since mid-November with simple statements about each day in it, and a space to provide a drawing. I'm very proud of the job she did, and we had a lot of fun reading it together. Sample entry from December: "Today I feel Hape. I am goee to Play awsid. Tmoro I will Play is mi rom. (translation: Today I feel happy. I am going to play outside. Tomorrow I will play in my room.)

The entry I liked most is the one attached below. The book is bigger than my scanner, so I couldn't get it all in, but it says (I'm translating for her spelling):
If I were President I would make every body be nice.

Perhaps I should forward this to the current administration. Seems like they need advice.

kindergarten

We enrolled our second child for kindergarten tonight. I wasn't as emotional about it as I was a year ago enrolling the first one....I was pretty much a basket case that night. But I expect to snivel a lot as the first day of school approaches.

Something I noticed right away was that the teachers who knew M all remarked about the fact that P was following in his sister's path...and I had a flashback to my own school experience, also in a small town, and as the last of four kids (you know who you are out there) being asked on the first day of school almost every year, "oh, are you ________ (fill in the blank with one of my sibling's names) sister?????" Usually the implication was that I had high standards to live up to, but on very rare occasions I got the distinct impression that I had a negative hurdle to overcome. I won't say which names had which impressions. But the fact remained that I was walking in three shadows, and I never forgot that whatever one of them had done--good or bad--it was something the teachers would judge me by. I've talked to our neighbor about her two daughters and there is a similar trend between the two of them...the oldest one is an honor student and excels at everything, and the younger one is often put in the position of having to live up to that standard.

For the record, kindergarten isn't what it was when most of my faithful readers were enrolled....it is more like what I studied in second grade. The Reenactor and I are always astonished at what M is learning. We're expecting calculus homework any day now.

Green with Envy

Yet another in the file of Weird Photos of My Brother

the cliffs

this is the photo I was trying to upload yesterday.

sláinte!

Green

It is that time of year folks when Miners and their wives think Green. We are three days away from the Best Ever, and because so much of what you see in the States is faux Celtic--in terms of the St. Pat's celebration--I wanted to put up one of my favorite photos of The Reenactor. He is standing at the Cliffs of Mohr in County Clare...a truly spectacular site to visit. I took this photo when we visited Ireland in Oct. 1998. The memory I took home with me from that trip is that Ireland is a lovely place...one of the most beautiful places I've ever been...and our cartoonish images of it every March 17th pale miserably by comparison.

So this weekend, raise a pint of Guinness in salute to the millions of good people who left that gorgeous green country to find a better life here in ours. And if you ever get the chance, go visit for yourself the real Emerald Isle.

NOTE....I tried to upload the photo I mentioned, but apparently Blogger is having issues with uploading photos now. As soon as they get it resolved I'll post the photo!

Gettin' dotty with it

I have changed my blog background. I discovered that my crazy friends MJ and NJ have the same blog background I originally had, and since their blog existed before mine, I hate to be their bloggin' twin.

So I'm dotty now! Feel free to comment on THAT revelation.

no junk truck, no 'mo

We just rid ourselves of the second of two "junk" vehicles that were trashing up the yard of our house in recent months. A very nice man just gave The Reenactor good cash folding money for the old blue Chevy truck that has certainly seen better days. And my father-in-law drove off with my dad's old Craftsman lawnmower yesterday to donate it to a man in the Bootheel who apparently is fond of antique lawnmowers with Rotary Club decals on the seat that only turn to the right....a definite issue when mowing the yard.

So friends, the good news is we're still Getting Rid of Stuff.

The Reenactor also built an impressive fire in our yard this afternoon of Things I Decided I Could Live Without from our storage shed. Things that were no longer salvageable, but I was keeping them for sentimental reasons.

Huzzah.

slacker mom/wife

I've read a book recently called "confessions of a slacker mom" that really changed my attitude about parenting, and I discovered recently that the author had written a second book called "confessions of a slacker wife." I think if I lived in the same town as Muffy, the author, (yes, that's her first name) I would want to be her friend. Her books have been a blessing to me because it has been so good to see in writing that someone (other than The Reenactor) shares the same attitudes, beliefs, and ideas as I have about parenting, and now that I've found the second book, my role as a wife, mother, hostess, home organizer, and to quote my father, "general lacky," has been quite nicely described in writing by someone who I sense is a lot like me.

I want my oldest niece to read this book...at least the first chapter...because she deals with the issue of being called "Mrs." and changing her last name (Muffy actually hypenates it); I want my friends to read it because it deals with how much pressure we put on ourselves to be perfect...a.k.a. that Stewart lady on t.v...and we are constantly frustrated that we don't have the time, the ability, the money, or the dozens of people working for us to make perfection happen. And I want everyone I know to read it because like her first book (slacker mom) it really gets to the issue of why do we let marketing dictate how we expect our lives to be? Why do we spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on things that are sold in garage sales two years later for a fraction of their original price. Why do we feel that a 4,000-square-foot house is appropriate for a family of four when two generations ago a family of six was comfortably accommodated in a house 1/3 that size. Why are we always pushing ourselves for more, more, more?

If you have children, or if you have friends who are new parents, this is a great gift to give them (unless they are the type of folks who she is writing about...two SUVs, a McMansion in the 'burbs, etc.). If you don't have children, or your children are grown, you should read it anyway because it really addresses so many social issues in a way I've not seen written before.

I'm only halfway through the slacker wife book, but I'm already saying "YES!" about every other paragraph that I read in it.

cat scratch fever

(Left) The Offending Scratcher and Sneezer

For those of my kin who have cats in the house (and you know who you are) here's a question for you. Our Sassy has developed this rather annoying habit of not only scratching the litter to cover her poo in the litter box, but she spends several more minutes scratching the inside of the lid to the box. Covering her waste has turned into a part time job for her. Every time she goes she spends up to five minutes scratching away in there. The only reason I know that she's scratching the inside of the lid as well is that I walked into the room where the litter box is while she was doing it, and caught her in the act.

Is there a reason she is doing this? Any thoughts? She is almost obsessive about it.

My postings seem to be centered on bathroom topics tonight...both small boy and feline. My apologies. I'll get back on my corporate consumerism rant again in a few days.

dropping your drawers

So my five year old son was climbing a tree this afternoon in the great spring-like weather we're finally having. I walked over to talk to him and noticed a pair of tighty-whiteys laying on the ground underneath the tree. "Packer," I asked, "Did you lose your underwear?"

Packer denied the underwear was his.

No one else in our family wears size five Fruit of the Looms, so I again asked if it was possible he lost his underwear. All of a sudden he started giggling....the undies were in fact his. Apparently he had gone inside earlier to go the bathroom, and as going to the bathroom is still sometimes a "gotta take off all my clothes" experience for him, he got his undies stuffed down in his jeans in the redressing process, and they fell out of his pants leg as he climbed the tree.

We all had a great laugh out of it, but the cutest part of the whole thing was watching him looking at the undies and dissolving into giggles.

Not exactly what I set the blog up to talk about, but it was the highlight of my day.

Spring Training

From my desk I can see three male cardinals in a tree outside in our front yard. I am naming them Ecky, Jimmy and So.

Opening day is 26 daze from now.

A correction

So it turns out my son isn't as clever as I originally thought. The Reenactor informs me that Packer probably picked up the idea of naming the tools in his toolbox from a character in a cartoon on either Disney channel or PBS Kids. He says the character has some of the same names Packer is using (like Pat for the hammer) but that Packer has also made up some that aren't on the show.

It is still very, very sweet to hear him saying "do you need to borrow Phillepe to fix that?"

Packer's Toolbox

My brother gave my five-year-old son a toolbox with real tools in it for his birthday. This has turned into the family toolbox, and we ask Packer if we can borrow his tools a couple of times a week at least.

The thing that I find really cute about all this is that PE has named the tools in the box. His hammer is "Pat"; his tape measure is "Stretch"; his needle-nose pliers are "Sharpen Point"; his pliers are "Squeeze"; his Phillips-head screwdriver is "Phillepe" - (pronounced with a Spanish accent); and his other screwdriver is "Turner."

So this afternoon I was working on something and I asked him to get Stretch so I could measure and then later I needed Pat to hammer a nail.

This Mama is Sharin' the Wealth

In my ongoing effort to purge my household of unnecessary items that are doing nothing but taking up much needed storage space I have come across an idea that I'm hoping to develop further in coming weeks....making a "bulletin board" of sorts online that my friends locally can access to swap, trade, sell and give away stuff we don't need anymore. I guess it would sort of be my own "Craig's List" but would probably be open to the other families I know through preschool or the newcomers group or whatever.

I gathered up a box of 15 books this afternoon that I no longer need to read (read 'em all) or want taking up space on a bookshelf, and emailed two different groups of women I know with a list of the books and the offer to give them away to the first takers. I've already gotten rid of half of them in just two hours. What I don't give away this way I'll take to the library for their annual book sale.

I also have a good friend here who is ebaying stuff for me. I give her a stack of stuff, she posts it and ships it, and hands me a check! Perfect! There is no local vendor for doing the ebay stuff like a lot of cities do, so this works out great for me, and her!

I agree with Shley's comment from an earlier posting that going to thrift stores is a great way to "recycle" things you don't need, or to buy things at a fraction of the cost that you need. I shop at several children's consignment stores here in town because I can often find good quality clothing for 20-30 percent of the original price. I also have a friend here in town who gives me handmedowns of her daughter's clothes for my daughter....her daughter is a couple of years older than mine, so it works out great....and we use the stuff and pass along the items that are still in good shape to another family!

So....don't throw it away....give it away! Sell it! Swap it!

Environentalist Wacko

Here is the question that keeps racing through my brain every time I hear someone like Rush, or Jerry Falwell, or others of their ilk deny the existence of global warming, and call it "junk science" and those who believe it is real "nut jobs" -- my question is this: What will it possibly hurt if we (the ones who believe global warming is a real threat) are wrong? In other words, if 50 years from now this is all proven to be a huge hoax, but we've all made changes to revert the effects of global warming. What if everyone in North America switched from regular light bulbs to florescent? Who does that hurt? The people working at the light bulb factory? What if everyone purchased an energy-efficient appliance next time they shopped for new appliances? Who does THAT hurt? We as a nation might use less electricity and therefore need to burn less coal, which also means we need to destroy LESS of West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky with coal mining efforts?

Who would it hurt if all vehicles were required to be hybrids, or at least far more fuel-efficient than they are now? Not that you would be forced to buy a whole new car in the next two years, but when you were in the market for a new vehicle you had many, many more options in terms of environmentally friendly vehicles? Hmm? Who would that hurt? The oil industry? Al Queda? Saudi Arabia? If we were using less oil would it also not give us far less reason to interfere in the middle east?

The thing I fundamentally DON'T understand when I hear politicians and talking heads scoff at the notion that global warming is real science, and that we are killing our planet at an alarming rate with our steadfast destruction of forests, our dumping of toxins into the atmosphere, and our (the collective "our") willingness to not be concerned about it as long as we get to drive our SUVs and keep all the landscape lights on all night to show off our McMansion in the 'burbs....the thing I don't understand is WHAT is wrong with believing the science?

Is it that the messenger (the dreaded liberals and Europeans) is the offender? If Shrub had said from day one that his most important goal in office would be to cut back on the effects of industries and causes of G.W. would the evangelicals been 100% on board?

I have not had a satisfactory answer to this. I've not seen a reporter ask any of the anti-G.W. loudmouths why they are so scared of it.