That’s the new favorite line in the LightHouse. It comes from the latest in the Shrek series. Shrek the Third. This movie lives up to the series potential. We saw it as part of the Father’s Day package given to LightHusband. I’ll spare you the details so that you’ll have something to enjoy when you see it. BUT … there is a scene in which Shrek, Donkey, and Puss In Boots visit a high school. As Shrek passed a snotty high school babe type, she looked at him, turned her nose in the air and said, “Like … ewweth.” and we all fell out of our chairs laughing. It’s stayed with us and become our familial exclamation of grossness, badness, horribleness, etc.
So it was last night when LightHusband unveiled the bad news. The horrible news. The Washington Capitals are changing their jerseys. They are reverting from the very cool black, blue and gold of now, to the oh-so-not-cool red, white, and blue of the 1970’s. This news was met with a chorus of, “Like … Ewweth!!!” around the table … again and again and again.
But see for yourself. It really is … well … horrible.
We’ve been busy here at the LightHouse and my blogging time has suffered. Summer hit. With it came some new adventures that have taken me away from my blogpost. Let’s see …
Hockey … yep … there’s still hockey. I’ve taken on the role as Team Manager for LightGirl’s team in the coming season. I attended a team managers meeting for the league a few weeks ago. Wow. It’s been a couple of weeks now and I’m still processing the culture shock. The world of travel hockey is definitely a “third space” for many of these families. It also seems to be a “second language.” O my, o my. One thing I did learn from that meeting (led by the league registrar and financial officer) is that the players must fill out forms. I felt a veritable blizzard in July coming on during that meeting and the temperature of the ice rink did nothing to dissuade me. Paper … my very favorite renewable resource. I do get to organize it all into a three-ring binder and carry it neatly to games. Swell.
On the other hand, this is a role which will give me greater interaction with the girls. I’m excited about that prospect. I love this age group and working with young women of this age again will be good. LightGirl is none too pleased, she is certain that all of my faults as a mother will be on display. I reassured her that I save those mistakes for her and LightBoy. She was somewhat mollified. Hah!
Sunday we take LightGirl to Penn State for hockey camp. She’ll stay there for a week and play hockey, hockey, hockey with her friends. She’s going to die. It’s going to be like hockey boot camp. They have breakfast and room check at 7 a.m. This alone will kill her. Then she’s going to have to work like there’s no tomorrow. And then work some more. It’s going to really test how much she loves the sport. She will either thrive … or die. I’m betting on thrive … with a lot of pain for good measure. However, the anticipation is going to drive me to the hoosegow. I’ve had the opportunity to overhear several conversations between LightGirl and a couple of her teammates that are also going. The teammates have also not been to this camp before. The speculation and giggling are hilarious. They are also ruining my ability to concentrate on preparation.
LightGirl has a new “do” now. She has a bob. Think 1920’s Flapper girl and you have a good picture. It completely suits her and frames her sweet, sassy face. She’s so funny though, she keeps calling it a “bobbin.” Because her mother is a quilter, so it’s a bobbin. Like the thing you put in a sewing machine. I struggled to keep a straight face. After the hair cut, we went shopping and out to dinner. It was a fun “girls” afternoon and evening. She grilled me on whether or not I would miss her while she was gone. I had a hard time with that question. She won’t be gone long enough for me to truly begin to miss her. I am excited for her. I think she’s going to have a wonderful time; she’s going to be learning and engaging with people in a whole new way. I will miss hearing about that daily. We’ll catch up at the end of the week. But this is a new stage of her life. One where she is beginning to pull out from the dock and do things without us. I’m thrilled to be sure. There is a small part of me that is sad. But most of me is just looking ahead to all the possibilities … the horizon is broad, the choices are popping up like daisies. Adventure is calling … where will it take her?
LightBoy is going to be busy next week too. He’s going to a hockey camp of his own. Day camp here at the home rink. I’m relatively certain that staying home with mom and dad is going to include going to a movie or two and maybe a favorite dinner or dessert. Something fun here or there.
In the midst of all of this, I have been continuing to go my place of exercise regularly. I’ve not been doing laundry regularly so there is now a large pile of unfolded but clean clothes in my livingroom. The piles of unclean clothes are much smaller now. I am attempting to declutter our house a little at a time. “A little” being the key phrase in the previous sentence. So little, that in fact, it is imperceptible to the human eye. I believe that our “stuff” reproduces in the night when no one is awake. It does the hoochy-koochy with each other … the nasty as it were … and makes little stuffs to grow and live in the dark corners until they can assume proper adulthood in my closets. I think I’ve discovered what the origin and purpose of dust bunnies are. Hmmm …
So … yeah … we’ve been busy. Running around. Doing school. Chasing life. Wondering … laughing … crying … all the regular stuff.
P.S. I just noticed that my linky-thingy in my sidebar is broken. And I have no idea how to fix it. No, that’s not entirely true. I noticed it about 5 days ago. But I’ve been involved in getting our finances installed in Quicken. And … I have no idea how to fix said linky-thingy. So, if anyone has any ideas, please throw them my way. I’d love to hear them.
Really … it’s what Kievas said …
He said (and I quote):
1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves. 2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules. 3.At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. 4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.
1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3.At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.
So … that’s what I’m doing. It’s meme time again!
1. I love coffee (love, love, love it). And I love chocolate (the darker the better). BUT … I do not like to mix them. I don’t even like to have coffee with chocolate dessert. Those two tastes cancel each other out somehow.
2. I used to drink Diet Coke by the bucket. But I don’t anymore. Now I’m trying to kick a vicious rootbeer habit.
3. The annoying thing about all this hockey in the LightFamily now, is that I hated it when I was growing up because my brother always got to watch Hockey Night in Canada which came on right in the middle of the Waltons.
4. The only kind of music I won’t listen to is country … but I’ll even listen to country if it’s got some kickass bluegrass in it.
5. I don’t like pasta with marinara sauce. I think we ate it too much for several years there and now, I just don’t care for it.
6. One of my goals in life is to learn to play the bagpipes.
7. I’m excited that I get to teach the LightChildren a unit on anatomy and physiology next year. That was one of my favorite subjects in highschool.
8. I find it very amusing that some of LightGirl’s favorite songs now, were some of my favorite songs … way back when. She is always shocked and then dismayed by this. Which I also find even more amusing.
I cannot possibly tag EIGHT whole people … it would make my head blow up. So I’m going to double tag four people: Makeesha, Jamie, John and Scott. Har …
LightGirl has expressed on many recent occasions a concern that she not grow up and become, how shall I say this, “a nerd” … like … um … her parents.
However, I believe she already is given the contents of an e-mail she just sent me. The subject was: check this OUTTTTTTTTTT!!!
It’s superfly!!!!!!!
(So … go ahead … check it out. It’s the evolution of the British Empire. But she’s not a nerd or anything.)
With the evaluation out of the way, I’m somewhat more relaxed now and able to have more conversations with LightChildren which are not some form of “You should be doing school because we are so far behind it will take multiple lifetimes to catch up.” Or some other such nonsense that comes out of my over-achieving mouth. They were far more reasonable and healthy about the whole thing. I really need to take more cues from them sometimes.
In any case, LightGirl has joined me at Curves. I was not certain I would welcome the imposition on “my” time at first. But I’ve come to enjoy the conversations we have in the car there and back again. I also enjoy seeing her take on more and more of herself in these venues. A recent car conversation was a little unsettling however. It began like this, “Mom, did you ever find out that a guy you’d had a crush on for ages was a jerk just about the time he started paying attention to you?” “Hmmm,” I responded, “I don’t really remember if that happened. If it did, it didn’t make a big impression on me. Why do you ask?” “Well … GoalieGuy was getting dressed in the hallway yesterday when we came out of our lockerroom. He put his hands on his pants and asked if anyone wanted to see his p****.” (and yes, she used the anatomically correct term, as apparently, did he) She was not entirely certain if this was funny or jerky behavior or a mixture of both. Neither was I. I told her she might want to give him a second chance because middle school guys are sometimes known to do weird and awkward things to get attention. She agreed with that. Later on I did suggest that she might want to begin to carry around a 6″ ruler. Then she could whip it out if he ever does that again and say something like, “Hey, I need to measure that. I’m doing some field testing for a homeschool biology class.” She thought that was pretty funny and might put an end to the jerky behavior.
Last night LightBoy and I stopped in at 31-derful Flavors to order the cake for his long delayed birthday party. It will happen this weekend. We were with LightHusband. He had to run along to pick LightGirl up at the rink, so it happened that LightBoy and I walked home from the ice cream store. It wasn’t far and it was a pleasant evening to stroll along with an ice cream cone. LightBoy picked the darkest chocolatiest ice cream they had. For those of you who know him IRL, he’s not a particularly neat eater. So he had a nice ring of chocolate around his mouth which prompted me to say, “Hey did you get any IN your mouth?” He giggled. And we walked on. Pretty soon he said, “Mom, I’ve got something for your ‘Strange Facts About Kids Book’.” “Oh yeah?” I replied. “Yeah … Kids walking along the street with ice cream around their mouths makes adults happy.” he said. “Oh … really,” I said, “but adults walking along the street with ice cream around their mouths …”  “… makes other adults nauseous.” he finished the sentence for me. “Don’t worry Mom. You have skin colored ice cream.” (well that was a HUGE relief … that and the fact that I have learned in the past year or so to eat my ice cream without making a mess, but don’t tell LightBoy). I very nearly fell out laughing, but of course, could not because … well … he was so serious about the whole thing.
This is a good age. Good conversations. Interesting conversations. Now if they would only stop bickering ….
Ahhhh … I could use a beer right now. Or something cold and delicious. Or something chocolate. Or really anything rewarding.
We’ve had another successful year of homeschooling. Coach came today and evaluated the LightChildren and our homeschool (Osgiliath Classical School). We passed with flying colors. In fact, he said, “I wish I could bring other families out here and give clinics. You have a healthy family and a healthy school.”
I’m feeling very relieved and just a little smug.
It won’t last long … we still have a lot of work to do for this academic year. We’re quite behind. But for now I will bask in the glow of a job well done.
I learned two things today. The first is the vast difference between how I face evaluations and how the LightChildren face them. They have a much healthier attitude towards it. I’m glad; it’s one thing that I wanted them to get out education that I did not. The other was a primer on how to do records of high school and how to think outside of the box so that a study of fabric dying can become a class on Textile Design and Production. Yeah, buddy! I’m lovin’ that …
Now we’re off to a Memorial Day cookout and swim at PlusOneFriend’s house. Oh, what a relief it is …
I’ve been reading a book on parenting called Parenting Teens with Love and Logic. Actually, I’m pretty much finished with it now. It’s quite good. It’s really a guide to help parents understand how they can gradually put more and more responsibility for a teen’s behavior onto that teen. It’s a delicate balance and more difficult to achieve than you might think. It is difficult to love someone and yet allow them to accept painful consequences for bad decisions. This is difficult to even think about. But it’s been on my mind lately as I’ve had some conversations with LightGirl about issues like drinking and sex outside of marriage. These are issues that I have choices to make as I talk to her about them. I can make rules and forbid her from doing them. Of course, drinking alcohol is also illegal until she is a certain age. The problem is that when I make those rules, I put both of us in a really bad place. I put her in a place where she feels as though she must test the water and the boundaries I have set. I put myself in a place where I must eternally police those boundaries and that water. It’s bad for both of us. And it does nothing to nurture or grow our relationship.
In the last day or so, John Smulo posted about a recent Resolution passed by the Southern Baptist Convention concerning the use of alcohol by their members. I got to thinking about the resolution in light of the book I’ve just read on parenting. There are many styles of parenting. And there are many styles of living in community together. And there are many styles of relating to God. But somehow I think these are all intertwined with one another. I am coming to believe that the way we parent and look to parents is a reflection of how we interact with God and how we look to God.
For me, I believe that whether or not one drinks alcohol is a matter of personal preference. The consequences will be born by that person. God is going to love me no matter what, but it’s going to be painful for him to watch me go through that hangover. In the same way, if LightGirl chooses to drink when it’s not in her best interests, it’s going to make me very sad. It will be painful for me to watch her bear whatever the consequences are of that choice, but I will still love her. I’m going to give her lots of information, tools, and support to make good decisions. But they are ultimately her decisions … because it is ultimately her life, not mine. But she and I are in loving community with one another. We talk, we wrestle with these decisions. She knows I love her and have her best interests at heart and she has mine.
So, I wonder sometimes, about institutions and entities who feel that more rules will help these sorts of issues. I’ve come to believe that rules are put in place when community is lacking. Rules must be established when people feel they can no longer speak to one another face to face. Regulations and resolutions must be passed because it is no longer individuals who count but standards which must be upheld. Where there are laws, there does not need to be community, there only needs to be a police force … and life becomes more and more stark.
As everyone knows, I love to keep up with the Jones’ … so in the interest of keeping up with the latest blogology quiz, I’ve decided to reveal my “Star Wars Character:” Obi Wan Kenobi
This is decidedly hilarious for me on so many levels that I cannot even begin to tell you about. It makes me laugh and laugh and laugh deep in my heart. But especially funny for me (the homeschooling mom), in particular, is the last sentence of the description: “Now if only you could get your padawans to listen to you.”
Which Star Wars character would you be? (pics) created with QuizFarm.com
HT – Paul
Not too long ago a book made its appearance in our home. It arrived with the LightMom; a gift from the GrandPea to his oldest grandson (LightBoy). It’s called the Dangerous Book for Boys. At about the same time, Julie Clawson wrote about some serious misgivings she has about the book. She makes some points that I’ve given some thought to. But I’m not terribly concerned about them. We’ve all been reading the book, including LightMom, who wished that the book had been around when she was a girl. I want to build the crystal radio with the LightChildren, and I’m teaching LightBoy to quilt, LightGirl plays ice hockey, it would be fair to say that LightHusband does more cooking than I do. So we tend to be fairly gender neutral in our house. I worry about those books in terms of our culture, but also know that on a case by case basis I have more control over how my children perceive them than I previously recognized.
Then I took LightGirl and one of her friends to play hockey one afternoon and the friend (nicknamed the Beast by her team) told a story about her middle school softball team. It seems that the girls softball team and the boys baseball team share equipment room space and practice time. They do not, however, share a liking for each other. So they have taken to playing somewhat mean jokes on one another. This is not done in a spirit of fraternity, but in getting even, and ill will. The latest prank was that the girls broke into the equipment room and tied tampons and pads all over the boys equipment. They thought this was hilarious. I guess if you’re 13 it is. What was disturbing to me is that the girls coach aided and abetted them in this endeavor. LightGirl brought the incident up with me this morning. We talked about it. I told her I found it somewhat disturbing that the coach assisted in this. I also told her that my biggest problem was that for centuries men have found women’s menstrual blood and the products they use to deal with it unclean and the butt of jokes. So the girls were just perpetuating that myth and denigrating themselves by playing that joke. They were, in a sense, further putting themselves down.
Without menstrual blood, we would not have the human race for much longer. It is that monthly cleansing of the womb that allows pregnancy and prolonging our species. It’s high time we acknowledged that far from being unclean and a joke, it is what allows us to be and continue being. It is what makes us intensely feminine, female and other and beautiful. And I am far more concerned about those underlying centuries old issues that women and girls continue to perpetuate as well as men. May we learn to find beauty in these things as well.
The street sweeper went by our house today. It blew up a lot of dust and sucked it all back up into its big dark tank. It was very quick and painless. Our little cul de sac only took about a minute … maybe two.
It came early in the morning. Shortly afterwards I left to go to the gym. As I drove down a nearby street I noticed that the street sweeper had been there as well. It had only been down one side of that street though because parking is allowed on on the other side of that street. I admired how clean and grime free the curb area was on the “clean†side. Then I looked at the “unclean†side. It was full of leaves and clutter. And mostly cars. It was not clean because the street sweeper couldn’t get there when the cars were parked there. It being basically a huge gasoline driven power scrubber and vacuum cleaner, it cannot go where cars are parked.
It really bugged me seeing one side of the street clean and the other messy. I like matched sets. So I started to think about ways that the messy side could be cleaned. I came up with a novel approach. I thought of …
… wait for it …
… a broom.
Then I began to think more about it. What would happen if we got rid of all the gas powered street sweepers and replaced them with brooms? And paid people who don’t have jobs (homeless people, for example) to sweep the streets? What might happen? What other jobs, simple jobs, do we now engage gasoline or oil powered machines to do that people might do? I think it might kill two birds with one stone. We could simultaneously give people employment while reducing our dependence on petroleum products. It might not be much of a reduction, but it would be some. Maybe there are some other things we can do in small ways to reduce our dependence.
In a similar vein, we participated in the Gas Out the other day. Which is to say, by coincidence we did not need to purchase gas on May 15, so we did not. LightGirl and I were talking about it later and thinking about how it really probably didn’t do any good. Her idea was that there should be a Gas Out Month! “That would make a difference!†she declared. “Well … yes,†I thought. Then I began to imagine what that might do our economy. How would we go about managing to not buy gas for a month? How about a week? Think about it … how long can you reasonably go without getting gas? How long can you make a tank stretch? Can you make it go longer? I wonder if we all just started thinking in terms of how long can I make it before I have to fill up again? it might change our use habits, which might change our dependence. It might just take a slight change of perspective.
Like brooms, and paying people instead of buying machines. Like finding out how many days you can take a tank of gas.
