Mom Project

I am requiring my family to memorize a poem together this summer.  There are no members of the family excited about this project. I don’t care!

Memorizing is super hard for me.  It is most definitely not one of my talents.  But I think it is good for the brain.  And having poems you can recite is a great party trick (my brother Zach is king).

Poem memorization was a torture of my childhood.  I can still do Annabelle Lee and Jabberwocky, but that is about it.

We got a lovely book put together by Caroline Kennedy called Poems to Learn by Heart which has simply divine illustrations.  We went through it today and the boys loved the rhythm of the poems, which I wasn’t expecting.  We have narrowed it down to two choices and I’m sure there will be a video soon when we complete the task.

Any of you forcing summer good for you projects on your families?

My First Giveaway!

I got an advance copy of a whole pile of books which is like Eliana Christmas.  I just finished reading All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood by Jennifer Senior.  Too bad it won’t come out till 2014 because it was interesting and well written and thoughtful.

See, like this part:

All of us crave occasional liberation from our adult selves.  I’m not just talking about the selves with public roles to play and daily obligations to meet (to find relief from those people, we can simply go on vacation, or for that matter pour ourselves a stiff drink at night).  I’m talking about the selves who live too much in our heads, rather than our bodies; who are burdened with too much knowledge about how the world works, rather than how it ought to or could; who are afraid of being judged and afraid of not being loved.  Most adults do not live in a world of forgiveness and unconditional love.  Unless they have small children.

So here’s the deal.  The book is great.  I got it for free so I’m going to pass it on to one of you, dear readers.  Make a comment by Sunday night and I’ll randomly select a winner.  I’ll even mail it to you instead of attempting to teleport.

 

Maybe Gross

I had a series of surgeries in my childhood, leaving me with a scar across my throat.  You’ve probably seen it.  I am working on an essay and needed some specifics about the issue (thyroglossal duct cysts, in case you wondered) so I did some research.  These pictures are somewhat fascinating.  I never knew that much about what my deal was so I feel much better informed now.  In my mid-20’s I had a swollen lymph node once that super freaked me out because I thought it was another cyst.  It wasn’t.  I was just getting sick.

So if you are interested, take a look.  But be warned if you are squeamish.

An Open Letter to the Bagger at my Grocery Store

I’m so sorry for bringing my reusable bags with me today.  Do they make your job slightly harder?  You certainly have every right to complain about them.  I know you have been highly trained for months to get to your current level of bagging competence.  Then I saunter in, messing up your carefully orchestrated system of tossing two items into a plastic bag, throwing it into the cart, and doing it all again.

As much as I love coming home with 36 bags for 50 grocery items, I’ve been working really hard to remember my eclectic assortment of reusable bags.  I hadn’t considered the effect this choice would have on you.

If you want to keep your zitty little face shut and stop talking trash about my horribly complicated grocery bags, I’d totally dig that.  Maybe then I’d keep shopping at this store.  You could keep your job, doing what you love.  I’d get my bananas and string cheese.  Happy all around.

Thanks a bunch!

Excellent Fathering

The husband and the children (4, 7.5) watched IRON MAN a few days ago while I was at work.

I hear that there is a line in the film that says, “Get the bastards!”

Todd dodged a bullet here because Owen’s version, frequently repeated, is the much more awesome, “Get the baskets!”

Eyelashes

I bought this heated eyelash curler a few months ago, after a review in a magazine.  I’m not a regular old way of eyelash curling so I’m not a scientific sample here, but I like it.  It makes me feel like my eyes seem more open–always a good thing.  And it doesn’t make me feel like I’m dying, like the squeeze kind.  If I was a good blogger I would have before and after pictures for you.  But I’m not, so I don’t.  I did find this funny promo video of how to use it though.  I would recommend the Chella.  It is cute and easy.

SuperStar

This is scanned so I know it isn’t a great image, but a friend stopped by this morning with Thursday’s newspaper–with cute Cole on the cover of sports with other dodge ball boys.  How funny.  He loves the class.  He dodges, he tells me, but from my view he hangs out in the back and never throws a ball (because he throws like his mother).  He’s happy though, right?  RIGHT?

Friendster

How do you actually move past acquaintences to become friends?  This is a serious question.  I don’t do coffee…or maragaritas…which are the default activities for spending increased time together with a person. 

I need help, clearly.  With little kids you can have park time or have someone come over and chat while kids play.  What do other people do?  I have a few people in my life that have potential to be more…but I don’t know what to do.

My peeps are all gone just about.  Every year, someone moves away, and I haven’t been keeping up.  This one person is coming along the friend pipeline nicely but I can’t act too needy or she’ll be scared away.  I feel like this used to be easier.  Was it?  Is this a whiny post?  I don’t know.  Sorry.

Zombies

We watched a terrible/great zombie movie.  WARM BODIES.  Funny and slightly odd.  I liked it but you might not.

Cole thinks we should take his father out for sushi to celebrate Father’s Day.  He’s such a nice kid.  I am wearying of HARRY POTTER 5 in a major way; Cole says I can stop reading but that he’ll continue and continue talking to me about it all the time.  I feel trapped.

Owen is weeping a lot.  I’m moderately concerned.  He’s also trying to lift up his tumbling teacher every time I look in the window.  This is Todd’s fault because he pretends that Owen can lift him up unless (Todd) is wearing his special magnet shoes.  Sometimes it is complicated keeping track of things around here.

Summer school is killing me.

For Your Sunday Enjoyment

The Osborn Sisters! Not to be confused by our second cousins’ band of the same name.