I don't know why this year seems different, but it has been a glorious spring.
It came early, for one thing. We had gorgeous daffodils followed by sumptuous flowering trees. Then came the tulips, which are just now starting to fade. The colors have been so intense you can almost taste them, unlike our usual gray, rainy springs that make even the brightest yellow blossoms look muddy and dull.
On Monday the girls and I attended Jonathan's track meet. It was the first meet we were able to get to, and he seemed very pleased to see us. I love how Jonathan smiles with his whole face. He is nearly six lanky feet tall now, and when he runs, he looks like he is loping around the track, his arms and legs so much longer than the others that he overtakes them with a seemingly languid effort. The grass was an intense green, the sky an equally bright blue, and the track a vivid reddish orange. It reminded me of when I play with pictures in photoshop and bump up the color saturation. Of course, I had forgotten my camera.
The pool is open, which means that we took the ugly black winter cover off and cleaned the water so it is a sparkling blue. Everything out the windows is happy and leafy, growing and vibrant. This is the best time of year, because later in the summer it will get dry, and there will be more brown. Right now, everything is newly back to life, fresh and juicy with the youth of the season.
Of course, I still blow it. Last night, I stayed up way too late. This morning I awoke late, got up later, and took forever to get in gear. In the end, I did do a little tidying, a little vacuuming, a little shopping and a little laundry, so it was not a wash. But I wish I had gotten going more quickly. I will try to do better tomorrow. There is so much to do if we are going to have a graduation party for David.
Yes, David is graduating. Also, he lost his cell phone, which is a very sad thing. He is pretty sure someone stole it, and I am pretty sure that if this is the case, that same someone also smashed it for fun. What else would you do with a cell phone? David agrees. As I said, it is a sad thing. Especially when you start looking at what it will cost him to replace it.
Shannon is done with college for the year and waiting to hear where she will be doing research this summer. It is nice to have her at home. It is also nice that she is incredibly decent about sharing her car and helping me pick people up in different places.
Tonight Shannon took Laura to the dress shop to pick up her prom dress now that it has been altered. Laura goes to prom on Saturday. I'll post some pictures when it happens...
New leaves, pretty blossoms, track meets, graduation, six-packs of sweet allysum, tests out of the way, prom... This is spring 2009.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
A Rant (sorry)
What is the deal with the bottled water industry?
They say there's something in the plastic (PCBs?) that breaks down and causes cancer, particularly breast cancer. Hence, you should never, NEVER refill a water bottle with tap water.
This smacks of marketing and sounds suspiciously like a copywriter's idea for compelling people to continue to buy case after case of bottled water, even though each case yields 12-32 bottles and people nearly always have a copious supply of clean tap water in their homes.
My first question, obviously, was, "If the plastic causes cancer when the bottle is refilled, why doesn't it cause cancer in the original use?" My son answered by explaining to me, "It's like a tuna fish can...you know, how after you open it, if you leave the tuna in the can in the refrigerator, the inside of the can oxidizes and gets black and gross. After you break the original seal on the water bottle, the decomposition process begins." Maybe this is true. Maybe not.
So, plastic oxidizes? No, I know I'm being overly simplistic here, but assuming that they are telling the truth, and the bottles begin to give off carcinogenic substances after the original airlock is broken...
Would this not indicate a terrible problem in our landfills, which contain thousands upon thousands of these very bottles, used and discarded because they are unsafe to be used twice? So they sit in the landfills, decomposing into carcinogenic particles, which presumably must seep down into the ground, poisoning the very ground water upon which we all depend with these very same carcinogenic particles that we were trying to avoid by throwing them away...
Also, they say that freezing water in water bottles, even before they have been drunk the first time, also causes the breakdown of PCBs. Excuse me??? Have you ever walked through the frozen department of a supermarket? Have you ever noticed how many frozen products are packaged in plastic? Do we have a problem here, or don't we? I know there are different types of plastic, but shouldn't that indicate that the unsafe varieties would be banned in favor of safe varieties? What is going on here?
It is all about making money, people. When packaging products in plastic nets money to big corporations, it is fine, legal and "safe." When reusing a plastic product promotes a risk to the profits of a large corporation, it suddenly causes cancer.
Which is true? I don't know. I'm not a chemist. My daughter Shannon is, and just ask her about aspartame (a.k.a. nutrasweet). It is poisonous. At warm temperatures (~86 degress farenheit), it breaks down into formaldehyde (a carcinogen) and methanol (which causes neurological damage and blindness). Everybody in chemistry knows this and has known it for many years. The controversy is not over whether this is true, but only over "How much aspartame is enough to be detrimental?" Are you serious? Antifreeze is poisonous. A a local woman was recently convicted for murdering two husbands with it. It tastes good when added to a drink, and the lethal dose is approximately two tablespoons. Does this mean that we could say that if only 1/4 of a teaspoon were added to each of our drinks, it would be fine? Because that amount "is not enough to be detrimental..."?
I'm sure if Shannon ever becomes prominent in her field, Monsanto will find a way to gag her. (Monsanto is bad for the world, and I coud easily find stronger words to use about them than that.)
We are on our own, people, we are on our own. Our government does not protect us; our government and judges have sold out to whomever is the highest bidder, certainly not the common man. We cannot trust the FDA as far as our noses are from our faces. If you want to know what is safe, study it yourself, and if you want to eat food that is safe, you'd better raise it yourself.
And drink out of glass glasses instead of plastic bottles. But if you have to drink out of plastic, don't worry too much, because the hype is probably mostly only due to marketing.
They say there's something in the plastic (PCBs?) that breaks down and causes cancer, particularly breast cancer. Hence, you should never, NEVER refill a water bottle with tap water.
This smacks of marketing and sounds suspiciously like a copywriter's idea for compelling people to continue to buy case after case of bottled water, even though each case yields 12-32 bottles and people nearly always have a copious supply of clean tap water in their homes.
My first question, obviously, was, "If the plastic causes cancer when the bottle is refilled, why doesn't it cause cancer in the original use?" My son answered by explaining to me, "It's like a tuna fish can...you know, how after you open it, if you leave the tuna in the can in the refrigerator, the inside of the can oxidizes and gets black and gross. After you break the original seal on the water bottle, the decomposition process begins." Maybe this is true. Maybe not.
So, plastic oxidizes? No, I know I'm being overly simplistic here, but assuming that they are telling the truth, and the bottles begin to give off carcinogenic substances after the original airlock is broken...
Would this not indicate a terrible problem in our landfills, which contain thousands upon thousands of these very bottles, used and discarded because they are unsafe to be used twice? So they sit in the landfills, decomposing into carcinogenic particles, which presumably must seep down into the ground, poisoning the very ground water upon which we all depend with these very same carcinogenic particles that we were trying to avoid by throwing them away...
Also, they say that freezing water in water bottles, even before they have been drunk the first time, also causes the breakdown of PCBs. Excuse me??? Have you ever walked through the frozen department of a supermarket? Have you ever noticed how many frozen products are packaged in plastic? Do we have a problem here, or don't we? I know there are different types of plastic, but shouldn't that indicate that the unsafe varieties would be banned in favor of safe varieties? What is going on here?
It is all about making money, people. When packaging products in plastic nets money to big corporations, it is fine, legal and "safe." When reusing a plastic product promotes a risk to the profits of a large corporation, it suddenly causes cancer.
Which is true? I don't know. I'm not a chemist. My daughter Shannon is, and just ask her about aspartame (a.k.a. nutrasweet). It is poisonous. At warm temperatures (~86 degress farenheit), it breaks down into formaldehyde (a carcinogen) and methanol (which causes neurological damage and blindness). Everybody in chemistry knows this and has known it for many years. The controversy is not over whether this is true, but only over "How much aspartame is enough to be detrimental?" Are you serious? Antifreeze is poisonous. A a local woman was recently convicted for murdering two husbands with it. It tastes good when added to a drink, and the lethal dose is approximately two tablespoons. Does this mean that we could say that if only 1/4 of a teaspoon were added to each of our drinks, it would be fine? Because that amount "is not enough to be detrimental..."?
I'm sure if Shannon ever becomes prominent in her field, Monsanto will find a way to gag her. (Monsanto is bad for the world, and I coud easily find stronger words to use about them than that.)
We are on our own, people, we are on our own. Our government does not protect us; our government and judges have sold out to whomever is the highest bidder, certainly not the common man. We cannot trust the FDA as far as our noses are from our faces. If you want to know what is safe, study it yourself, and if you want to eat food that is safe, you'd better raise it yourself.
And drink out of glass glasses instead of plastic bottles. But if you have to drink out of plastic, don't worry too much, because the hype is probably mostly only due to marketing.
Monday, April 27, 2009
My Favorite Smoothie
This is my favorite smoothie. It is easy, pretty economical, and delicious.
Place in blender:
1 banana (I like it to to be pretty ripe so it is sweet)
1 cup frozen blueberries (more or less)
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt (more or less)
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. honey
Blend until smooth, then add about 4-5 ice cubes, one at a time. Serve immediately, while it is still thick and frozen. All measurements are approximate and for your convenience only. I never measure anything and this smoothie is a little different every time, but always delicious.
*********************************************************
Laura went to prom at the school district next door with her best friend and another friend of theirs. Here are Amber, Laura and Aubree, doing super model poses.
Below, you can see Amber's date (how nicely they match!), Amber, Laura and Aubree.
Laura doesn't take these things too seriously. Here, she was trying to crack Amber up, and it looks like she succeeded.
Here are Laura and Aubree. They had a great time dressing up and having fun.
Jonathan's flower
This is the flower that Jonathan made at the Corning Museum of Glass.
Here he was getting directions.
Here he began to roll out the hot glass. It is over 2000 degrees Farenheit.
You can see Jon using a tool to pull out the design.
Another view of the final product.
Here he was getting directions.
Here he began to roll out the hot glass. It is over 2000 degrees Farenheit.
You can see Jon using a tool to pull out the design.
Another view of the final product.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Humor
This is a picture of Jonathan, suited up to work with hot glass at the Corning Museum of Glass. You pretty much can't tell how cool he is when you see this picture, but I promise, underneath all that protective gear, there is a happenin' dude. Pretty soon I might have a picture of what he made...
It would be nice to be funny.
Sometimes I make people laugh, but it is usually unintentional. That's OK, really. I'm just glad if people laugh at me, even if it is really at me, and not along with me. I'm not too proud to be the butt of a joke.
What I really hate is when people are horrified by me. That is uncomfortable. A good healthy dose of humor can remedy some of the most awkward situations. I appreciate people who laugh at me.
Once I had a friend, Ginny, who laughed her head off at nearly everything I said. This was at a point in life when I was probably clinically depressed, and I was beyond pessimistic. We would get on the phone, and I would start describing my day, and she just laughed and laughed and laughed... before I knew it, I was laughing with her, and life didn't seem all that bad. I don't know if she was doing it on purpose to cheer me up. She was the kind of person who would have done such a thing, if she had thought of it. But she seemed completely genuine. She moved away to somewhere near Seattle and we tried to exchange Christmas cards for awhile, but both of us being mothers of multiple little children, the relationship didn't survive the distance very well. I missed her so much when she first moved away. I think she was the first good friend I had in New York.
Someone else could have heard me say the same things, and instead of laughing, a different person might have scolded me, or condemned me, or told me that I was wasting their time, being a drain. It's interesting how I can see the futility of such an approach from the outside, when I myself am the subject in debate. I think our natural response to people is to condemn them and criticize, but when it happens to us, how quickly we see that it doesn't work. You never make a person feel better about herself by telling her everything that is wrong with her. Obviously.
You make people feel better about themselves when you love them and have positive interactions with them. Demonstrating that you will "put up" with someone just demeans her all the more. Delighting in someone enables her to feel delightful, and when she begins to believe that she has the capacity to delight someone, she is empowered with a sense of security and esteem that helps her in every ensuing relationship.
It is usually pretty easy to delight in your friends; after all, that's why they are your friends... because you enjoy their company. Sometimes it is harder to delight in your family, or sometimes we are just lazy about it. When someone isn't "cutting the mustard" it is easier and much more natural to read him the riot act than to creatively come up with a plan for having positive interactions and building confidence, self-esteem and love. Self-esteem originates in being loved. And in family relationships we often forget that love needs to be more than a duty, it needs to be our delight.
God calls us to love one another. Jesus said in John 15:12, "This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you." He also said, "Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples," (John 13:35). Later, John wrote, "Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God," (1 John 4:7). Again, I think it is important to seek a love that surpasses duty and expresses itself with true delight for those it loves.
Which includes humor. What parent has not experienced the excruciating joy of laughing at the hilarious antics and conversation of a two-year-old? Why does it stop when they get older? Why is it so much harder to laugh at a 12-year-old? Or a 15-year-old? How do you hold on to that mirth, or recapture it?
"A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person's strength," (Proverbs 17:22).
Let's learn to laugh together, in our families, in our friendships, in our churches. Let's be willing to be a little ridiculous and accept others when they are, too.
Lord, please help me to love through laughter.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Forgiveness
The hardest thing for me to forgive is someone who needs to forgive me and won't.
I have been a Christian for approximately 39 years. I have read through the Bible three times, and am sort of working on the fourth. I teach Sunday school and Bible studies. And yet, I seem to be paralyzed in this area of life.
My family was very forgiving. My mom made a lot of mistakes, and so did I, but each day was a fresh new beginning. Often, apologies were not spoken, but grudges were never held. A new morning came with a new civility, kind words, open conversation, and the wordless communication that bygones would be bygones and we would move on.
I do not know if this is the best way to handle conflicts. I think a direct apology is a better route to take. But sometimes you can make a direct apology. You can say, "I was wrong. I'm sorry. I made a mistake and I hurt you. I am sorry. I promise I will never do that again." You can do that... and the person may continue to treat you with hostility. At such a point, you can't grow bitter and resentful, much as it seems impossible not to. But, neither, I think, should you grovel and snivel and do all manner of deeds to try to earn the person's favor. At a certain point, you have to leave it up to the other person to work things out with the Lord. At a certain point, it is no longer about your heart, but about the other person's heart, and you just have to let go.
The first time I was in a situation like this, I never imagined that the hurt feelings could be permanent. I had been hurt, and I was not gracious about it. I did not suck it up like a grown up lady; I let it be known that my feelings were hurt. The result was a condemnation of my character that has held through over 22 years. No apology, no forgiveness, just silent, everlasting condemnation with no end in sight. And yet, I have to forgive. I have to, or I will shrivel in my spirit and perish. It is a battle that seemingly will never end, this need I have to forgive in the face of condemnation. I throw myself on the mercy and grace of God, and still I fail more often than I succeed.
Now I've done it again. I allowed hurt feelings and stupid desperation to lead me to bad decisions and bad actions. I have tried to make things right. I have apologized, hung my head in shame, wept. And yet, I am facing bitterness, unforgiveness. I've already been through 22 years of this. I pray that this doesn't add another lifetime sentence to my penance on earth.
But even if it does, I pray that God will give me grace to forgive those who will not forgive me. If Jesus could forgive those who abused Him and hung Him on a cross to die, surely I can at least do this, with the power and strength of His Spirit living in me.
"Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Romans 8:1
Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong. They are weak, but He is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so.
I have been a Christian for approximately 39 years. I have read through the Bible three times, and am sort of working on the fourth. I teach Sunday school and Bible studies. And yet, I seem to be paralyzed in this area of life.
My family was very forgiving. My mom made a lot of mistakes, and so did I, but each day was a fresh new beginning. Often, apologies were not spoken, but grudges were never held. A new morning came with a new civility, kind words, open conversation, and the wordless communication that bygones would be bygones and we would move on.
I do not know if this is the best way to handle conflicts. I think a direct apology is a better route to take. But sometimes you can make a direct apology. You can say, "I was wrong. I'm sorry. I made a mistake and I hurt you. I am sorry. I promise I will never do that again." You can do that... and the person may continue to treat you with hostility. At such a point, you can't grow bitter and resentful, much as it seems impossible not to. But, neither, I think, should you grovel and snivel and do all manner of deeds to try to earn the person's favor. At a certain point, you have to leave it up to the other person to work things out with the Lord. At a certain point, it is no longer about your heart, but about the other person's heart, and you just have to let go.
The first time I was in a situation like this, I never imagined that the hurt feelings could be permanent. I had been hurt, and I was not gracious about it. I did not suck it up like a grown up lady; I let it be known that my feelings were hurt. The result was a condemnation of my character that has held through over 22 years. No apology, no forgiveness, just silent, everlasting condemnation with no end in sight. And yet, I have to forgive. I have to, or I will shrivel in my spirit and perish. It is a battle that seemingly will never end, this need I have to forgive in the face of condemnation. I throw myself on the mercy and grace of God, and still I fail more often than I succeed.
Now I've done it again. I allowed hurt feelings and stupid desperation to lead me to bad decisions and bad actions. I have tried to make things right. I have apologized, hung my head in shame, wept. And yet, I am facing bitterness, unforgiveness. I've already been through 22 years of this. I pray that this doesn't add another lifetime sentence to my penance on earth.
But even if it does, I pray that God will give me grace to forgive those who will not forgive me. If Jesus could forgive those who abused Him and hung Him on a cross to die, surely I can at least do this, with the power and strength of His Spirit living in me.
"Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Romans 8:1
Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong. They are weak, but He is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Nails and stuff
Every time I go to Sam's Club, I break a fingernail. Since I go to Sam's pretty much once a week, my fingernails are getting really short. Not that I'm into manicures or anything, but I do like the protection and functionality that a modest fingernail affords.
My mother drinks jello for her nails, and she hates it. She literally gags on it. She heats it up and drinks it because she finds it slightly less loathsome as a warm liquid than as a cool gel.
If I went to Sam's as infrequently as I update this journal, my family would starve. I haven't been doing well at either cooking or writing. Guess I'm busy.
Laura seems to be doing better, finally.
My mother drinks jello for her nails, and she hates it. She literally gags on it. She heats it up and drinks it because she finds it slightly less loathsome as a warm liquid than as a cool gel.
If I went to Sam's as infrequently as I update this journal, my family would starve. I haven't been doing well at either cooking or writing. Guess I'm busy.
Laura seems to be doing better, finally.
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