People get ready...

Lent is coming.  This weekend finds us beginning the Lenten Triodian with The Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee.  I wrote a series of Lenten reflections for kids a few years ago.  Perhaps I will post them each week here.  I actually learned quite a bit with that project and have forgotten most of it, so it will be edifying for me as well.

I’m sure I should post something of deep spiritual significance, with Lent being just around the corner, but, I’m not.  Instead, I’m going to confess one of my guilty pleasures.  I really enjoy reading the “gossip” pages of British tabloids. 

There, I said it. Why?  I’m not sure.  I’ve always been a secret celebrity watcher.  In general, I enjoy watching people.  I can take a book to a public park with the intention of reading, but more often than not, I end up ignoring the book and watching the people.  We are such curious creatures.  Reading the gossip pages allows me to “watch” a particular subset of people who often have very peculiar habits.

One subject has been in the headlines since, oh, last week.  Did you know that Jessica Simpson ate a cookie?  Yup, she probably had two or three.  And now, instead of looking as if she might snap in two at any moment, she looks quite healthy.  In fact, I think she looks fantastic.  Of course, the Hollywood hounds have been all over her, declaring her “fat.”

While I would never hold Jessica (or any other Hollywood starlet) as a paean of virtue for my daughter to emulate, I would prefer that the rest of the Hollywood set she is bombarded with (a la the High School musical merchandise she sees at school) have women that look like Jessica rather than the typical stick figure with hair.  Ana already worries about being fat.  If you’ve ever seen my daughter, you know how ridiculous her feelings are.

Of course, it’s easy for me to celebrate Jessica’s new found curves, being a “fuller figured” woman myself.  However, It would be really nice to see more “role models” (I use the term loosely) for girls who looked like Jessica, instead of the scrawny little things to which we are usually subjected.

Bulletin: A Crazy Chain of Making

I agreed to participate in the following “crazy train” so now I must post the following:

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me. It will be about or tailored to those five people.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
- What I create will be just for you.
- It’ll be completed this year.
- You have no clue what it’s going to be or when its going to be. It may be fiction. It may be poetry. I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that’s for sure!
- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you have to put this in your journal as well, if you expect me to do something for you!

*Please put your postal address & email address in your comment or email it to me!

Originated by the lovely and talented Jocelyn .

Cold Water...

This morning, I forgot to let the water heat up in the sink before washing my face.  The temperature outside was a balmy 17 degrees, so you can imagine the shock of that cold water.  Ouch!  I find myself doing such dumb things quite a lot lately.

Eight years ago (8 years!) when I was pregant with my daughter Ana, one of the psychiatrists and my co-worker at the Forbush School said to me, “you are now entering one of the busiest times of your life.”  I remember thinking, “busy, how could this be busy?  I’m going to stay home with my baby.”  There is an expression out there about eating words.  I wonder if it applies to thoughts as well.

The first 6 months of Ana’s life weren’t the busiest in terms of physicality, but they certainly were life changing.  Once David came a long, 15 months after David, I definitely found myself in a busy cycle.  I can remember getting them both in bed at night and longing for a sensory deprevation chamber.  If I had had a way to be totally deprived of sound, smell, taste, touch and sight, I would have jumped at it…even if it was only for 30 minutes.

And now, I would definitely say that I am at the busiest time in my life.  I never would have thought I’d go a month without updating this thing.  Alas, working 30 hours a week outside of the home, homework (never ends) and taking care of a family equals a busy woman.  I have had a hard time dealing with the adjustment.  At some point, you just have to realize that you’re not ever going to be the perfect wife, mother and employee.  I’m not a perfectionist, by any stretch, but I do like to feel as though I’m doing my best, and that just can’t happen when time, talent and energy are spread across many playing fields.

I can’t complain for I am lucky to have a job and one that can go a long way to supporting the family.  I know many people in the world today find themselves in tenuous positions.  Slowly, as a family, we are adjusting.  We all pitch in to clean the house on Saturdays and take turns washing the dishes.  This is good for the kids, I think, to be contributors to the running of the household.  When they are a little older, I may hand over some of the cooking jobs to them.

Still, it’s funny.  When I was in my 20’s and trying to picture what my life might be like in my 30’s, this isn’t necessarily the picture I came up with.  At the same time, it’s not not what I thought it would be either.  I think the basic idea was there.  I always pictured a family.  But, there are different gradations in the colors…a little lighter here, a little darker there.  Thinking about the differences in what I expected and reality to leads to a  feeling something like an unexpected splash of cold water first thing in the morning.  Here I am…wake up to what’s around you…be thankful, move, breathe, pray, love, live…

All's quiet....

I’m almost afraid to say that.  But I can report that no one is coughing at the moment.  The kids are definitely on the mend and although Jim was struck down by a nasty cold right before Christmas, it has not morphed into pneumonia, bronchitis or any other such serious ailment.

I have been off from work since the 24th.  These school holidays are a really good thing…a nice long break for Mama.  Of course, I’m not getting paid for sitting on my butt, but, I really did need a break.  December was crazy with the adjustment to a new position and full time hours.  Hopefully, I’ll be ready to take January by the horns next week.

We had a nice Christmas celebration with Jim’s family on Christmas Eve.  The children received many nice gifts including clothes that they needed as well as some nice toys…and a new computer, a combined gift from Jim’s parents, their Uncle Jae and us.  It’s a mac mini and I must say that it rocks!  They are so pleased to have faster processing speed.

We had Christmas dinner with friends from our parish on Christmas day…always a wonderful time of fellowship.  My parents came for a visit on Sunday and left yesterday and are hopefully home.  I realized after going to bed last night that they hadn’t called to tell me they had arrived home safely.  I’ll call them when the hour is decent this morning.

Other than that, it has been a nice quiet break.  I’ve been riding my bike, watching Little House on the Prairie reruns (a guilty pleasure, but I used to watch it with my Grandmother so, you know, memories) and staying up too late reading books.  I’ve some paper work to do today, which I hope won’t take too long.  The kids and I went to Port Discovery yesterday (we were gifted a membership from an anonymous benefactor) and may hit the Walters Art Museum tomorrow after Liturgy. 

I hope you are having a restful and peaceful 12 days wherever you are…

Multiple Pestilences...

The Nee family has not had a sickness episode like this one in recent memory.  Jim was diagnosed with pneumonia last weekend and then had a kidney stone last night.  Ana was also diagnosed with a “touch of pneumonia” last weekend in addition to a stomach virus.  David was diangosed with pneumonia on Sunday.  Ana’s cough has now worsened and she has a fever of 102.

Somehow, I have managed to stay well.  But I’m a bit discouraged.

Tolerance...

My “speech room” at school happens to be part of the health suite.  In order to get to my room, I actually have to walk through the nurses office.  This is not a big deal of course, but it does mean that I get to chat with the nurse and her health assistant on a regular basis.  Both are very nice people.

One day last week, the health assistant gave the nurse a present…an adorable metal worked Santa Claus.  The nurse said, “I wish I could put it up for the kids to see, but I would get in trouble.”

Me, in one of my more abashed tones, replied, “Santa Claus?  Why can’t you put up Santa Claus?”

“Oh, because we have students here who aren’t Christian?”

OK…I know Santa is associated with Christmas.  But honestly, at this point he’s pretty much the father of consumerism and probably more of a “pagan,” for lack of better term, symbol than a Christian.  Don’t get me wrong, I like the fat, jolly guy and cry at the end of “Miracle on 34th Street” as much as anybody. But to call him a Christian symbol is a huge stretch at this point.  Are folks who do not self identify as “Christian” truly offended?

The sad part of tolerance, in my opinion, is the silence.  I’ve never been offended by hearing how someone else might celebrate Hannukah, Id, Winter Solstice, whatever…and I am a Christian.  It is interesting and allows me to connect with someone on a deeper level when I can hear about their deepest convictions.  I may not agree with those convictions, or even like them very much, but so what? 

In the effort to be tolerant, in avoidance of being offensive to others, we celebrate nothing.  There can be no   cross cultural sharing of values.  But if we only look at how we are all the same, we’re left with only a few variables, and even those requre a careful soft shoe to navigate.  Where’s the fun in that?

And the sad part is, that without sharing who we are at our deepest levels, we miss out on finding the true values we might actually share cross culturally.  We’ll just keep missing each other.  And that could end up leading to disastrous consequences…

Favorite Christmas Album(s)?

Anybody want to share?  Mine is The Charlie Brown Christmas by the Vince Guaraldi Trio.  My all time favorite Christmas song, “Christmas Time is Here” is also on this album…probably because it’s wistful, slightly melancholy and makes me want to curl up under a blanket and watch snow the fall outside…a rare occurrence here in MD.

What’s yours and why…if you care to share…