The Proverbs 31 Wife

Hanging around on the Christian message board Gentle Christian Mothers had quickly introduced me to the concept of the Proverbs 31 wife as the ideal Christian wife. I had never actually taken the time to read it. (Well, in my defense, I had not even owned a Bible whose translation I cared for until a couple weeks ago.) I had lots of assumptions about what it said, though, having never read it.

I assumed that Proverbs 31 was probably talking about how women should stay at home & raise their children, keep the home nice & tidy, & not look for too much for themselves. They should be ever-sacrificing, and better seen, not heard.

Imagine my pleasant surprise when I found the actual verse to be a little lovesong about a strong, capable, supportive & talented wife:

A truly good wife is the most precious treasure a man can find!

Her husband depends on her, and she never lets him down.

She is good to him every day of her life,

and with her own hands she gladly makes clothes.

She is like a sailing ship that brings food from across the sea.

She gets up before daylight to prepare food for her family and for her servants.

She knows how to buy land and how to plant a vineyard,

and she always works hard.

She knows when to buy or sell, and she stays busy until late at night.

She spins her own cloth,

and she helps the poor and the needy.

Her family has warm clothing, and so she doesn't worry when it snows.

She does her own sewing, and everything she wears is beautiful.

Her husband is a well-known and respected leader in the city.

She makes clothes to sell to the shop owners.

She is strong and graceful, as well as cheerful about the future.

Her words are sensible, and her advice is thoughtful.

She takes good care of her family and is never lazy.

Her children praise her, and with great pride her husband says,

"There are many good women, but you are the best!"

Charm can be deceiving, and beauty fades away, but a woman who honors the Lord deserves to be praised.

Show her respect--praise her in public for what she has done.

I have become more and more interested through the past several years of learning about how women (and men) were designed to live. What choices are we to make that leave us calm, centered, & fulfilled? I look for these things in the Bible and as far as my home life is concerned, it seems a gameplan is laid out in Proverbs 31.

The reason I'm so glad that I finally read the verse is that it has allowed me to buck contemporary thinking once again. Just last week I received in my inbox an email forwarded by woman after woman that made a joke about the number of things a woman does after she announces, "I'm going to bed" (about 40 things on the path to the bedroom) versus how many a man does (one -- gets up & goes to bed). After I read the email, I lived with a little more resentment for the next several days. It's popular to grumble how many things we women have to do while our husband sits lazily in his chair doing "whatever he wants."

Why does he not do the dishes? Why does he not help me clean? Why does he never pick up the slack? Why can't I eat & then sit down & relax instead of cleaning up the kitchen?

You know why?

She knows when to buy or sell, and she stays busy until late at night.

Of course I stay busy until late at night. Honestly, if I didn't, I'd get bored. Quickly. Sitting in the living room chair for several hours before bed would have my legs jumping & my skin crawling. I am meant...designed, if I may....to stay busy until late at night. And with that little verse, I let it go. All of the resentment that contemporary society tells me I should have is gone.

What are your resentments? Are they truly valid?

be still....

I have three sprititual, Christian things on my mind today that have been brewing for a bit. The first is this verse from Psalm 46:10:

Be still and know that I am God.

It's a short little platitude on the outside, but eloquent in its simple message when you look deeper.

I've been sick with a stomach bug for the past week, which is my pleasant way of describing the freakin' parasite that has kept me no further than 10 feet from my toilet for 8 days & counting. At night, I've been too uncomfortable to lie on my side, so I've gone to bed on my back instead. Our 30-year-old TV finally broke around the same time I got sick, so I've laid meditating on my back to get to sleep each night instead. This simple change has transformed my daily attitude. I have always done my best thinking in this place between sleep and wake, this restful, alert, soaring, brainstorming, drifting place of clarity that I've never been able to call up on command.

I like noise. I like background TV, radio, voices, barking. It calms my fears. I have wished many times for a soundtrack to my life. Not only would I know of any impending danger just by the low, foreboding music, but I wouldn't have to ever be in quiet.

If I could vocalize the meaning I gleaned from Psalm 46:10 this week it was:

Only in the quiet will you know God.

It's not just the meditative quiet at the end of a busy night that has grown me this week, but the quiet of my lifestyle. I love it when we catch a glimpse of how we were designed to live. I haven't gone out save one hour this whole week. I've been homebound, locked down by the threat of parasitic contagion. And it has been one of the most calming weeks I've ever lived. For years, my soul has ached to rise in the morning, do a minimum of work on the computer, teach my child, cook, clean, sew & care for my family. Even when I finally had the opportunity to do so, when Sassy was born, I still filled the days with lots of unrelated activities probably pursued by me to make myself feel more important in the outside world. Nothing helps boost your self-esteem when you have no job, no school, little money, & a struggling marriage like having very important responsibilites that others are counting on you to do. This was not how God designed me to live.

I thought I would be lonely. I thought we'd never really be able to move to the farm. I thought I'd miss the running, the park play, the Saturday bars, the 24-hour Kroger. I won't. If I die never having owned a horse or milked a goat or brought eggs in fresh on Sunday morning, I'll miss that. I won't miss Target or the restaurants or even the coffee houses. I definitely won't miss being in the stupid car all day.

Only in the stillness will you know God.

It's amazing how the mind wanders, explores & always comes to focus on what is right when given the space -- the stillness -- to do so.

movies!

Who doesn't like good movie recommendations? Here's mine from the ones we watched this year. (Note that we rarely go to the theater, so most of these movies probably weren't released this year, we just watched them this year.)

The Painted Veil - perhaps my favorite movie love story ever

Blood Diamond - difficult to watch, infuriating & enlightening

Off the Map - a calming suggestion from a good friend about identity crisis in off-the-grid desert living

28 Days Later - a surprisingly well-written "zombie" flick that has nothing to do with zombies

An Inconvenient Truth - there is no excuse for not having watched this yet

The Break-Up - though big-name actor romantic comedies might be movie twaddle, this one has unanticipated depth

Stranger than Fiction - an opinionated baker living a life I envy, a lovely scene featuring "Whole Wide World," and another great performance by Will Farrell

Fast Food Nation - also difficult to watch, but is immediately transforming and sticks with you for months afterward

Hotel Rwanda - a glimpse of this highly volatile period in Rwanda's history through one man's eyes

More to come!

how to ruin your children's lives

I hopped over to Mothering.com to post a quick question about low VOC sheds when this article headline from Science Daily caught my eye:

Mom's depression linked to infant stress

As always, I will post the whole article since links to news sites change so rapidly.

TORONTO, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- A Canadian study suggested an association between a history of depression in the mothers and increased stress reactivity of their infants.

The study, published in Biological Psychiatry, also linked increased stress reactivity to a particular style of mothering known as "maternal overcontrol."

Researchers found an increase in the stress hormone -- cortisol -- following a mild stressor in infants whose mothers have a history of depression and a pattern of intrusive and overstimulating behavior toward their infant known as "maternal overcontrol." These infants also had lower pre-stress cortisol levels. In addition, there was a correlation in the cortisol levels between mothers and their infants.

These findings add "to our small but growing body of knowledge on neurobiological differences in stress responses between infants of depressed and non-depressed mothers," study leader Dr. Rima Azar, of Toronto General Hospital, said in a statement. Since the adrenocortical system is easily influenced in both positive and negative ways, Azar said she believes that it is very important to eventually identify which babies are more vulnerable to stress.
Copyright 2007 by United Press International. All Rights Reserved.

Now, if I may rewrite the article to reflect more truth, please:

A Canadian study suggested an association between a history of depression in the mothers and reading too many stupid "scientific articles" about all the ways they could ruin the lives of their children.

The study, published in Biological Psychiatry, also linked increased stress reactivity to a particular style of mothering that is induced by these same stupid articles and has been given a judgmental, demeaning name by the researchers in order to establish a new syndrome and possibly help secure funding for their future studies.

Researchers found an increase in the stress hormone -- cortisol -- following a mild stressor in infants whose mothers have a history of depression and a pattern of what the researchers consider intrusive and overstimulating behavior toward their infans that they have decided should have the name "maternal overcontrol." The researchers also outlined in specific medical jargon how the depressed mothers were ruining the lives of their children, using quantifiable values of various hormones so as to make their research sound important & undeniable.

These findings add "to our small but growing body of knowledge on neurobiological differences in stress responses between infants of depressed and non-depressed mothers," study leader Dr. Rima Azar, of Toronto General Hospital, said in a statement. Since the adrenocortical system is easily influenced in both positive and negative ways, Azar said she believes that it is very important to eventually identify which babies are more vulnerable to stress and treat the mothers quickly with mandatory drugs lest they risk losing their children to foster care until they can develop a better attitude and display cortisol numbers in the appropriate range on a court-ordered blood test. Then we can all finally be happy.

Related Headlines, just in case you're not yet sure if you are indeed ruining the lives of your children:

Low-birth weight linked to later disease (September 28, 2007) -- Low-birth weight infants may be at a greater risk of stress-related health problems such as coronary heart disease and diabetes, a Finnish study ... > full story

Breastmilk nicotine disrupts infant sleep (September 5, 2007) -- A nonprofit research center in the United States found infant sleep patterns disrupted by the nicotine in their mothers' breast milk. ... > full story

recounting your blessings when the moon is full again

Sassy.

A husband who is 100% behind our schooling choices.

A great deal of autonomy over my daily schedule.

No cancer diagnosis yet. (thank you!)

Plenty of food, even when there's little money.

A wonderful group of friends.

Sofie, with all her silly retriever quirks & her furry calm.

Most of my IQ.

Our Father, who art in Heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
Thy will be done,
Thy will be done,
on earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory,
For ever and ever. Amen.

Pater noster, qui es in caelis:
sanctificetur Nomen Tuum;
adveniat Regnum Tuum;
fiat voluntas Tua,
sicut in caelo, et in terra.
Panem nostrum cotidianum da nobis hodie;
et dimitte nobis debita nostra,
Sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris;
et ne nos inducas in tentationem;
sed libera nos a Malo.

pretty sassy sleeping

Sometimes your blog has to function as a notepad & this is one of those times. Since y'all probably get little else from this post, at least let it give you permission to make up silly sweet songs for your own babes. (And yes, that's right. City snots be warned, I'm officially endorsing my use of "y'all." And you can take permission to do that, too, if you want.)

OK, first the tune line-up here....I don't have a piano in front of me so I'm doing my best by guessing the notes.

C B A B C D C B A (low)G A B C D E F (low)F F low(G) A B C B A (low)G A B C D E (low)F F

Pretty Sassy sleeping in the swing
She's as pretty as an opal ring
She's as pretty as the ding-a-ling-ling of a visiting friend.

Pretty Sassy sleeping in the swing
She's as pretty as an ice cream king
She's as pretty as the ring ring ring of a grandma's call.

Pretty Sassy sleeping in the swing
She's as pretty as a robin's wing
She's as pretty as the sing sing sing of a mother's voice.

Repetitive, simple & silly-sweet -- put her right to sleep. :)

zoo curriculum sheet (cats, primates, insects)

This zoo curriculum sheet for preK - K was one I created for use with our last visit to the zoo. It covers three main concepts in addition to a few smaller ones:

* What it means to use camouflage as a defense mechanism.
* What a carnivore eats.
* How to tell the difference of monkey vs. ape.

We found it most interesting to cover only 5 exhibits in depth rather than attempt to cover the whole zoo. We definitely learned more this way. I mapped out our route starting at the gibbon island at our local zoo & then progressed to the next closest exhibit.

I packed pocket prizes to hand out for each correct answer. This was just to create interest in the "game" since it was the first time we'd done it. After a few times, pocket prizes will probably be phased out.

I also offered cash prizes (well, spare change) for each follow-up question answered correctly. Sassy could then spend the money inside the gift shop as a closing activity.

We enjoyed an ice cream cone while we answered the follow-up questions. The other questions were asked when we were directly in front of the animal.

GIBBONS

Do gibbons have tails?

RED PANDA

Where do red pandas live, in the water or in the trees?

JAPANESE MACAQUE

The Japanese Macaque has thick, thick fur -- as thick as a coat! Do you think that’s because they live somewhere really freezing cold or really hot?

BOBCAT

Bobcats live in America. Where do we live? So is a bobcat an animal we might see on a hike near us?

FISHING CAT

All cats are hunters or carnivores. That means that unless they are somebody’s pet, they mostly kill and eat other animals for food. What type of animal do you think a fishing cat might hunt and eat?

OCELOT

Like we talked about, all cats are carnivores or hunters -- meaning that they kill and eat other animals for food. Most of the time, they choose animals that are smaller than they are because most cats hunt all by themselves. What kinds of animals do you think the ocelot might eat? (Follow up -- Elephants? Mice? Zebras? Insects? Squirrels?)

GIANT WALKING STICK

Camouflage is when an animal blends right in so that other animals who might want to eat it won’t see it. It’s a good way to hide! Does this insect look like something else? What do you think it might be camouflaged as?

AMAZON POSTMAN BUTTERFLY

Instead of camouflaging itself, God made this butterfly so bright that animals that might eat it are scared of it. What colors are the butterfly? What colors do you think are scaring the animals away from eating it?

GORILLAS

Do gorillas have tails?

COLOBUS MONKEY

Does the colobus monkey have a tail? What does he use it for?

ASIAN ELEPHANT

What kind of sound does an Asian Elephant make?

MEXICAN WOLF

This wolf is called “el lobo” in its country. That is Spanish for “wolf.” What animal does the wolf look like? Do you they might be similar? Let’s read a story about it. (Companion book -- "The First Dog" by Jan Brett. Note: on a not-too-busy day, the wolf den makes a great place to sit & read the story.)

FOLLOW UP QUESTIONS (END OF VISIT):

Is a gibbon a monkey or an ape? (clue: does it have a tail?)

Is a gorilla a monkey or an ape? (clue: does it have a tail?)

What do carnivores eat for food? (clue: remember the CATS exhibit)

If you wanted to camouflage yourself in the woods, what color might you wear? (clue: remember the GIANT WALKING STICK)

What kind of animal that we saw today is called “el lobo” in Spanish? (MEXICAN WOLF)

preschool playdough recipe

Here is a recipe for preschoolers to try making playdough all by themselves. I created this recipe for a preschool group function for ages 3 & up. I designed it as an educational tool to help pre-K children learn basic cooking & kitchen skills. As we were making the recipe for the first time, each mom helped her child learn how to level off scoops, how to mix the ingredients, & how to knead the dough. The next day, Sassy was able to measure & mix pancake batter by herself.

The cup & spoon sizes are listed below the instructions. You will have different styles of spoons & cups in your kitchen; however, if you're not picky about how the images are cut out from the background, it would be quite easy to take pictures of your own measuring utensils & paste them over mine. Plus, once you take & cut out pics of your measuring utensils, you will always have them on hand in case you want to create different recipe picture sheets.

This is a no cook recipe. The silver spoon is a 1/2 tsp. The white spoon is a Tablespoon. The yellow measuring cup is 1/4 cup. The yellow measuring scoop is 1 cup. The ingredients are oil, food coloring, water, salt & flour. Mix it all into one bowl & knead when finished. Add more water or flour if needed.

Enjoy!

Note: You can click on this image to get a larger image for printing.

be very, very afraid

Thoughts on subjects like the following always remind me of that Michael Moore movie -- I wish I could remember which one exactly -- where he talks about submission of the public out of fear. I remember him walking around a border town in Canada and randomly opening doors to see if they were unlocked. He met the people inside the homes who seemed strangely nonchalant about his intrusion. It's always a good idea to remember that we are viewing this world from a very socio-centric, and I believe planned, perspective.

So I was hanging out with some out-of-town family the other day & I mentioned some natural health & nutrition info that they didn't know. My aunt asked me where I "read this stuff." I told her I read it online in several different places. The info was nothing spectacular....along the lines of low-fat diets keep you malnourished, raw milk isn't going to kill you, just basic facts. Her response: "Well, you can't believe everything you read on the internet," followed with, "I just saw a big news story on that the other night!"

Okay, whatever, so your news station in Virginia had nothing else to run that night, okay. But then, just a day later, I was out with my dad when I mentioned something I'd read online -- on Yahoo! news -- when he exclaimed, "You can't believe what you see on that internet. You know, people can put anything they want on there! There was just a big news story on about that the other night!"

Now, this got my interest piqued. My dad lives in Ohio. Sure enough, my uncle from Hawaii apparently saw the same "big news story." What's going on?

I think that there is an organized effort currently underway among those who own the network news stations to scare American Joe off the internet. The internet is the most accessible place where a journalist could report news that isn't approved by the powers-that-be behind the mainstream media. It's interesting that even if I say that I found the info on several different sites, some of which even have an printed version of their content, my fellow American Joes have already disregarded whatever I've said simply because it came from "the internet."

Even though I never saw any of the news stories they're referring to, I am sure I know the format they followed. First, there was the scary music against the frightening close-up of the computer screen just before the commercial break. Then, upon the return, a couple sites were visited that had ridiculously untrue information while Howard Ain talked about how easy it is to be sucked into the internet's guile, especially by children! The horror! Then, the story concluded with an interview with a woman who found what looked to be accurate medical information but it was posted by someone who (gasp!) wasn't a doctor and it ended up costing her lots of money & months of pain for her child. The pull quote, of course: "The site really looked legitimate!"

The difference in this "big news story" that I think makes it noteworthy is that they aren't reporting the big bad predator lurking about from which your police and government elected officials can protect you. Instead, you are being told to fear yourself -- your judgement, clarity & discretion.

But, you may not believe me. You are reading this online, after all. And if you think the internet is full of lies, blogs would have to be the lair of heretics. I can't say I blame you. Using your own discretion and common sense could be detrimental to your ignorant bliss. And difficult to acheive when your proudest accomplishment this week was skillful shopping.

in the water

Where is this tiredness coming from? The utter exhaustion that so many of my friends are complaining of right now, myself very much included? I joke that it's in the county's water, some overdose of chlorine, maybe an undetected parasite. I don't know that I can chuck everything up to a random intestinal worm. Does anyone else feel this dread? This disgust, this profound sadness with everything you see around you?

I've never actually struggled with true depression. I have dealt with grief on many occasions, but I've always had this irritating way of picking myself up off the floor and shaking my inner self into blind optimism. Play a happy tune on a sunny day and my mood was close to 100%. I'm easily swayed by my surroundings.

But not now. I attended a dear friend's wedding today. She was the first of my friends to have a baby and she really struggled. First she had the near impossible task of financially supporting a child with her only support system being a group of notorious slackers. On top of that, she had to constantly hide the mama-crazies. We all know by now what pregnancy, post-partum & toddlerhood do to your hormones and emotional stability. We accept it -- expect it, in fact. She didn't have that luxury.

It was a beautiful wedding. Every single thing about the wedding was perfect and my brain was deliriously happy for her. Still the deep sadness prevailed.

When I go to bed at night, the dread starts. We still co-sleep, so Sassy is close by, and I feel such fear for her. For me and for her. What would I do if I couldn't save her? Perhaps more importantly, why am I so convinced I'll need to?

I feel like there is a constant clock ticking, ticking. The Inconvenient Clock. Sometimes it's much louder than others. Lately, I can't hear anything else.

Looking around, I wonder why everyone doesn't feel it. The commercialism is so blatant and pervasive it's equally as hard to not cringe as to not desire. Our marriages are a joke. The idea of romantic love is our Ring. We would pursue it passionately, casting aside anyone or anything that gets in our way, and the chat board audience stands and cheers, even if we're already married. And if you present a dissenting view, that perhaps your children are more important than your fleeting feelings, or that perhaps the point of marriage isn't to make you happy day in, day out, then you're either a mysogynist or a religious freak.

In fact, as soon as you let your beliefs in Biblical truth leak out, you can assure yourself total disrespect from anyone who does not consider themselves a Christian. Well, it seems, had you come up with these ideas on your own, they might be worthy. But if they're in the Bible then you're just a brainwashed sucker. Now get on out of here so I can have sex with whomever I want whenever I want until there's nothing left for me to give.

At this point, this is becoming disjointed. I realize it, I'm calling myself out for it. And now I'll continue with it.

Over half of the world spend the same amount on every single one of their possessions combined what Americans spend on garbage bags in one year. This is the most sickening statistic I've ever heard. What's more sickening is that nobody seems to care.

I don't know how Al Gore keeps going. He was a major player in the biggest scam our country has seen in a long time -- the year we voted in one man and another man stole it. And everybody shrugged their shoulders and looked for their next comfort. Unrest is uncomfortable. We're a country addicted to comfort. How do you define success? Money, security, comfort. I assure you, great men and women are not built on money, security, and comfort. Nothing great happens when you're securely in your comfort zone.

It is the Great Duping of America. Let's count how we are duped.

1. The food you buy in the grocery store is healthy & safe to eat.
2. Diseases are caused by bad genes.
3. Vaccinations are safe and necessary.
4. Only licensed teachers can properly educate children.
5. Children will have a lifetime of social ineptitude unless they are "socialized" in the classroom.
6. Pet food is healthy and safe and the only option for adequately balanced diet.
7. Premarital sex has no repurcussions if you don't catch a disease or get pregnant.
8. Only pasteurized milk is safe to drink.
9. We live in a democracy.
10. The government cares about our lives & civil rights.
11. You can make yourself happy by buying new things.
12. Our physical comfort is of paramount importance, while seeking spiritual comfort is "weak."
13. The hospital is the safest place to have a baby.
14. Pesticides and herbicides are perfectly safe.
15. You can trust the FDA -- they are objective, impartial, and never bought & sold.
16. Dietary fat makes you fat.
17. Your vote is important.
18. You need a car.

There are so many more. I'm tired of it now. I'm tired of everything, especially watching everyone around me swirl us farther toward midnight. How do you keep on keepin' on? How do you retain optimism when you're not blind anymore?

preschooligans goodbye

Thank you all for making Preschooligans so much fun! I am so happy Sassy got to be in a group like this. I wouldn't choose anything or anyone different to school my child with.

I can't deny -- it was fun to spread my teacher wings. But even better was getting to know all of our little ones with their unique gifts and personalities.

Let's look at how we've grown:

September 2006



October 2006 - Erlanger Police Station Visit



January 2007



May 2007



Next year we'll see big changes! I'm glad we're doing it together.

I heart northside?

But, now that I've finally created it, I have no car to wear it! Rats!

these end times

I absolutely love this article by Kurt Vonnegut at 81 years old. Here's an excerpt:

--------------------------------------------------

How about Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes?

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. …

And so on.

Not exactly planks in a Republican platform. Not exactly Donald Rumsfeld or Dick Cheney stuff.

For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes. But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course that’s Moses, not Jesus. I haven’t heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere.

“Blessed are the merciful” in a courtroom? “Blessed are the peacemakers” in the Pentagon? Give me a break!

————————————-

There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don’t know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president.

But, when you stop to think about it, only a nut case would want to be a human being, if he or she had a choice. Such treacherous, untrustworthy, lying and greedy animals we are!

I was born a human being in 1922 A.D. What does “A.D.” signify? That commemorates an inmate of this lunatic asylum we call Earth who was nailed to a wooden cross by a bunch of other inmates. With him still conscious, they hammered spikes through his wrists and insteps, and into the wood. Then they set the cross upright, so he dangled up there where even the shortest person in the crowd could see him writhing this way and that.

Can you imagine people doing such a thing to a person?

No problem. That’s entertainment. Ask the devout Roman Catholic Mel Gibson, who, as an act of piety, has just made a fortune with a movie about how Jesus was tortured. Never mind what Jesus said.

During the reign of King Henry the Eighth, founder of the Church of England, he had a counterfeiter boiled alive in public. Show biz again.

Mel Gibson’s next movie should be The Counterfeiter. Box office records will again be broken.

One of the few good things about modern times: If you die horribly on television, you will not have died in vain. You will have entertained us.

poesia

Other languages often have the loveliest words for our harsh English equivalents.

Would you rather listen to an hour of poetry?

Or una hora de poesia?

I don't particularly care for poetry but an hour of poesia sounds perfect.

this land is almost our land

Well, as most of you know, we've put in an offer to purchase 15 acres. Yesterday, we went out for the soil test (a.k.a. "perk test") & I took some pictures so we can show them off to our friends. When I took these pics, I was standing in the spot where the house will be built. I just turned around in a complete circle starting from the view of the road & going clockwise to show as much as possible.

Now, the land is set up with 7.5 flat cleared "cropland" in the front and 7.5 wooded rolling acres in the back. The lot is 500 feet across & 1500 feet deep. So, it is essentially a long narrow rectangle, half cleared, half wooded.

the braggery of minutiae

I am sometimes in conversations with other mothers when they bring up the newest astounding thing that their child has done. Since I have a 3 year old and, thus, I often hang with other moms of preschoolers, the astounding things range from writing his/her own name to counting from 1 to 10 in Spanish. Most of the time, these situations put me in a rather uncomfortable position (assuming that the other mother and I have not been discussing a difficulty which she is then sharing has been solved). My first instinct is to share a random braggery about Sassy; yet, I squelch that instinct because when I pause to consider the words, they sound almost defensive. So, in the end, I say nothing, claim modesty in my own head, and move on.

Sassy has had her fair share of successes, that--though minute--I celebrate with our family. I read once that if you can salvage your relationship with your parents & in-laws it is best to do so since grandparents are the only ones who truly rejoice in your child's everyday successes and don't mind hearing about them in every conversation. From experience, I'd say this is very true. (Unless you have a parent figure who has raised or is raising another grandchild, in which case, they seem to want to compete on the same parental level. While personal for me, this experience is pretty rare.) I try to limit my braggery to conversations with these grandparents & other childless aunts so that it is well accepted. I don't really have a desire to compete with my friends using my child as collateral, especially considering that in my eyes, my child will always win hands-down. But of course, she is my child & I find her brilliant, personable, and darn near perfect. Such is the case for parents.

I was thinking about this all day yesterday. It wasn't because anything in particular happened that made me uncomfortable. In fact, the times that I have to find a way to respond to braggery within my circle of friends is few and far between. Instead, I was reflecting on this blog and trying to figure out if I could comfortably mention Sassy's successes here. The conclusion I came to was yes.

I have been wanting to record some of my proudest moments here because I not only use this as a means to share information, but also to record information for myself. I don't share everything, and it's far from a diary, but I do enjoy looking back even through the short 6 months Little Grapes has been alive and reading how our lives have progressed.

Since a blog is a mostly one-sided conversation, it doesn't feel inappropriate to record those boastful everyday moments here. There is no response required. There are no awkward moments where the conversation partner weighs the right response. There is just me, sharing my joy in being Sassy's parent.

So, here is what delighted me yesterday....

Sassy came running into the kitchen where I now have my office space yelling for me to "Come! Come see!" I followed her into the living room to find this:



She excitedly explained to me, "See...Big...Big-Little....um....Little-Big....Little!" I thought this was very cute and very clever. I took a picture for posterity and decided that she was going to do very well on those logic-based IQ tests when she got older.

Feel free to post your own one-way braggery in the comments (at any time!).

Sassy soundbite: "God made me"

About 6 months ago, Sassy learned in Sunday School that "God made everything." She even brought home a little sticker collage of all the things God had made, stuck right to a paper plate with a string for easy hanging. Sometimes we walk by the collage & she says, "God made everything."

"Yep," I say.

This has led to some interesting conversations. Such as, in the car, "Mommy, how did God make roads?" Which leads me into a discussion of how God made everything except the stuff Man made, but God made Man, so in a sense, he still made everything. And, of course, that leads into why we call men & women & boys & girls "Man," because it sounds confusing even saying it to a 3-year-old, and I don't really want her thinking that men make everything except food, which is the domain of their pregnant barefoot wives.

Actually, just last week Sassy and I were talking over dinner, when she said, "Mommy, God made my dinner."

"Actually, I made your dinner, sweetheart, but God made the foods that ended up making your dinner."

You see how it gets confusing? So the foods actually made themselves into dinner? Why didn't I just give God credit for the stinking spaghetti. It wasn't exactly a gourmet meal.

Well, obviously, it's all been sinking in somehow, because today she told me, "Mommy, I'm so happy God made me."

"I am, too," I said.

"One day," said Sassy, "I'm going to meet God and when I see him I'm going to say 'Thank you for making me.'"

I could learn a lot from this little girl.

what can your kid do?

My kid can now rinse & spit. What can your kid do?

sprouted wheat flatbread

It sounded interesting to me. I usually buy Trader Joe's sprouted wheat bread (Look Pa! No Flour!). We love it. I thought it would be fun to try making some sprouted wheat bread, and I figured flatbread would be the easiest to start with.

Here's the recipe.

Here's what the process looked like:

After soaking overnight & rinsing, I spread them out on a cookie sheet & covered them loosely with a kitchen towel.



Each morning & night, I rinsed them & spread them out again. After about 36 hours, they sprouted.




I put them in a large bowl & mixed them with 1/4 cup of turbinado sugar & 1 tsp. sea salt. I ran them through the food processor in 3 smaller batches until they formed a sticky dough.




I greased a cookie sheet with a little butter & spread the dough out onto the cookie sheet.




After baking for about a half an hour, we had Sprouted Wheat Flatbread to enjoy.





The bread was different from anything I've ever had. Although it had a crispy crust, it was still a wet bread even when done. It was also very rich, and I could only eat about three 2" x 2" squares. But the taste was out of this world. It had a nutty sweet taste. I thought it would make a great alternative to crackers with soup. Caroline thought it would make great melty sandwiches.

I consider the initial experiment a success, though it's still not a substitute for the TJ's loaves.

lasting play value

It's Christmas time, which means my schedule is ridiculously busy. I have a constant, annoying toothache, and I'm trying to figure out when in the world I can schedule a time slot to get the obvious cavity filled. I'm about scheduled out, and occasionally overwhelmed by it, but it is (mostly) of my own choosing. I don't like idle hands.

This is the reason for the 3 week delay in new posts.

It is also the reason I am prompted to write this morning. Relatives are have been asking me lately, what does Sassy need? What does Sassy want? It is my job to gently steer them away from wasting their money on their big ideas (you know, the ones that the marketers spent so much money convincing them would be the perfect toy, that what they actually end up buying is a grossly overpriced plastic piece of junk that Sassy discards after a week, at best). I figured I'd go ahead and write a list of what have been lasting toy values for us in our 3.5-year experience thus far.

* ART & CRAFT SUPPLIES: Chalk, chalkboards, crayons, markers, yarn, pom-poms, googly eyes, foam board, dry erase boards, pencils, pens, colored pencils, construction paper, FIMO/Sculpey clay, beads, jingle bells, pipe cleaners, embroidery floss, glue, glue sticks, paint, paintbrushes, stencils, small plastic table & chairs for messy projects, playdough & wooden playdough tools.
Not useful: easels that I have to find space for, markers that color only on the page (Magic Wonder markers or something like that?), coloring books.

* EDUCATIONAL SUPPLIES: anything on the art & craft list, as well as, lined paper for learning to write letters, clocks that can be manipulated, age-approriate workbooks.
Not useful: flash cards, LeapPads of any kind, educational toys that require Sassy to interact with the TV screen, computer learning games.

* IMAGINARY TOYS: plastic animals, Little People, dolls, stuffed animals, dollhouses, baskets, Barbies and other small dolls (such as My Loving Family & wooden bendable dolls), purses, backpacks, wooden blocks, Legos, Lincoln Logs, cash register, and dress-up clothes & hats.
Not useful: play kitchen (this really surprised me, but she bored of it very quickly--she prefers to help Mommy in the real kitchen with real food), dolls that talk, toy vacuum (she prefers to use the real vacuum).

* MEDIA: Dora the Explorer, Blue's Clues, Dragon Tales, Curious George, and Little House on the Prairie videos are extremely popular around here. See this post of our favorite books. CDs are always fun, too, especially those that encourage activity in the songs (Itsy Bitsy Spider, If You're Happy and You Know It, most of Jim Gill's CDs, etc..)
Not useful: As a general rule, any book that features a popular cartoon or movie character is void on a literary level. It has been created as a tool to sell more products and has zero value. I won't even keep them if I'm given them for free. Also not allowed in our home are any cartoons that are not shown on PBS, except Dora & Blue's Clues. I have thoroughly reviewed Dora the Explorer and Blue's Clues, and I find them harmless. I have yet to find any other non-PBS cartoons that I would trust blindly without watching each episode first. So, movies other than PBS, Dora, or Blue's Clues, typically are given away, returned, or sold.

*OUTSIDE TOYS: baby pool, small trampoline, playhouse, swingset, tricycle/bikes, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, Aerobie-type flying disk, bean bags, parachute, scavenger hunt supplies, her own gardening tools & gloves, seesaw, merry-go-round, sand table.
Not useful: motorized jeep cars, toy lawnmower, sandbox (too messy!), motorized bubble machines (also way too messy to be useful).

*FAMILY TOYS: card games (Old Maid, Go Fish, regular deck of 52 playing cards), age-appropriate board games, puzzles, family yearly passes to museums, zoos, play areas, etc, and movies that adults would also enjoy.
Not useful: Board games that require DVD hookup.

All in all, it's not very hard to buy toys for children between 1 & 10. There's a reason the classic toys are considered "classic." Stick with them, and you'll provide years of play!