A New Favorite Book

Girl With A Pearl Earring, by Tracy Chevalier, is the story of young Griet who is hired as a maid in the home of Johannes Vermeer. Forced away from her loving family after tragedy has struck, Griet attempts to adjust to a new lifestyle of unending labor and servitude. She is overwhelmed by the changes but manages to work diligently for her employer. The one benefit to her position is the opportunity to work with Vermeer and, in her own way, influence his works. Faced with an impossible choice, Griet sacrifices her own pride and a work of art is born.

The inner turmoil Griet experiences is palpable. She comes from a society in which class lines are distinct and never crossed. Yet when the time comes for her to cross a line, she feels as if she has no choice. Ironically, her choice is forced by the fact that she is from the lower class. This choice ultimately leads her into a better life, but at what cost?

This was an enjoyable, quick read; almost too quick, as I'm still digesting the story and the slighter nuances involved. The writer's descriptions of every day life, scenes to be painted, paint colors and light are breath-taking. Often during my reading, I felt like I hadn't done the words justice and I went back to read passages again and absorb them. Chevalier is a gifted writer.

I enjoy historical fiction immensely and I especially enjoy stories that are actually plausible. This is one of those stories. It may sound strange, but I feel as if I know the girl in the painting now.

On My Window

This morning I was getting ready for church and saw the unmistakable silhouette of a praying mantis through the curtain on my bedroom window. The insect was on the outside of the screen and the kids and I watched it for several minutes. We were actually late for church because of it.



Funny story, I actually looked up 'praying mantis' at Merriam-Webster.com because I couldn't decide if I should spell it 'preying' or 'praying'. The former makes more sense to me because it's a carnivorous insect and preys on other insects. But I could see it being the latter also since it sits in the traditional position for prayer. Anyway, it's definitely 'praying mantis.'

I find it a tad ironic that I saw a praying mantis on Sunday morning while getting ready for church. It's even more so, since my church is not known for prayer in the traditional sense. Ha!

The Past Three Days

Friday afternoon, the kids and I witnessed a car accident. A head-on collision right in front of us. Both drivers were alone and were up and walking around afterward but they went to the hospital as a precaution. It was pretty scary.

I babysat Noah and Adam last night while Jennifer and Caleb went out. The kids and I had a lot of fun. I will never understand how kids can play so hard and stay up so late but still get up so early, though.

We went swimming this afternoon for what is probably the last time until next summer. The weather is consistently cooling off and we are so busy with school and work that I doubt we'll fit it in again.

Samuel stepped on a bee at the pool. He is such a tough kid and there is not much that phases him, but he cried solidly for 20 minutes. Hard. My poor baby. We came home immediately and put baking soda on it. He's had two doses of Benadryl and he let me put an ice pack on it. He is sleeping now. I hope it doesn't wake him up tonight and that he feels alright tomorrow.

Two tornadoes touched down 10 minutes south of here this evening. It doesn't seem like there was much damage so far. Several co-workers live in that area and I'm hoping everyone is okay. The storm blew past us pretty quickly. We had a bit of thunder and a lot of wind but no rain or hail. Now we are covered by some pretty awesome looking clouds.

I am tired.

Thursday Thirteen: Stuff in My Shower

I was going to post this last night, but my internet connection was down. Poo. It's not much but here it is anyway.

1. Burt's Bees Rosemary shampoo

2. Burt's Bees Rosemary conditioner

3. Tub of baking soda for exfoliating and occasional hair washes

4. Pumice stone for serious exfoliating

5. Bottle of apple cider vinegar, water and lavender oil for occasional hair rinses

6. Razor

7. Bar of Ivory soap

8. Tube of oatmeal and avocado mask, rarely used

9. Kids' strawberry shampoo -- for when they bathe there and don't like the other options

10. Bottle of baby shampoo for face washing

11. Washcloth drying from last night's shower

12. Wall hanging rack to hold it all -- only it holds about half of everything

13. 32-ounce cup for rinsing children's heads

I Was on the Radio Today

I don't know what got into me; I never do stuff like this. I called a morning talk show during my commute to work and they actually put me on the air. It was cool.

The discussion was about high school students using the internet for research papers. One of the hosts heard about a teacher who has banned the internet as a source for all papers in a class for a semester. She thought it was absurd and unreasonable that a teacher would do this "in this day and age." Her co-host thought it was perfectly acceptable because students should know how to use other research methods, too.

Anyone who knows me can probably guess which stance I took. I am firmly in the 'perfectly acceptable to ban internet use for a time' camp. I am of the opinion that knowing how to get around a library and use the card catalog (which is online itself) are valuable skills that everyone should have. The internet is a wonderful tool but it's not the only one available, therefore shouldn't be the only one relied upon.

There were a lot of reasons tossed around in support of both points of view. Someone mentioned the widespread plagiarism since the advent of the internet. Someone else brought up software that searches out pieces of papers and alerts teachers to possible plagiarism. Someone said that not everyone has a computer and someone else said that there are computers in libraries which brought the library back into the discussion. I brought up the fact that there are an ever increasing number of functional illiterates in our society and I think our lack of actual reading and writing has something to do with that. The woman host said flat-out, "I don't believe that." I laughed at her.

Like any discussion with no definite answer, this one traced itself in many circles. But it was fun to listen and discuss. And I was on the freakin' radio. :grin:

Religion and My Kids

A few choice quotes from my children in the last week, mostly unrelated and from vastly different conversations, either with me or with each other. The first two need no explanation. The last two were overheard during their live action game of Age of Mythology on Saturday.

The Bible says we shouldn't eat pepperoni or bacon so I'm not going to. Daddy doesn't eat pepperoni or bacon.

We have that movie at Daddy's house. We rented it and Daddy made a copy and took the other one back to the store.

All hail, Gaia!!

You didn't give enough favor to Kronos. You should do it again.

Too Creative for His Own Good

Solomon and I had a difficult bedtime last night. He pushed all the wrong buttons and by the time I turned out the light, I was too tense to tuck him in nicely. So I did what I do in that situation and told him that I'd be back in a few minutes to tuck him in.

I left the room to straighten up a few things and cool myself off. As I was organizing my desk, Solomon came out of the room and stood by my elbow. I ignored him for a few seconds, thinking that he might think better of it and go back to bed. He didn't so I turned to look at him.

I heard a sound.

A deep sigh. Go. Back. To. Bed.

He turned, stomped into the bedroom and threw himself on to the bed. It was a very hard landing and I heard creaking from the bunk bed. The kids have had drilled into their heads "Do Not Jump On The Beds" since I made that purchase more than two years ago. It's an automatic time out. I can't believe I am putting a child into time out after bed time, but so be it.

He goes to the spot in the hallway and I start his timer. He was appropriately meek and served his time well.

When the timer beeped, we had the very brief discussion about why he had a time out and why it's not okay to jump on the bed or throw oneself on to the bed. I don't feel the need to belabor this point because it's not a matter of him not understanding by now. But whatever.

I should know better than to ask, but I asked him why he had done it. He thought carefully before responding, "It's because I want to be in the Olympics and I need to practice so I can jump over those hurdles."

Yeah, I laughed, too.

Random Stuff

My post yesterday was the 100th post to be published on my blog. I have a total of 105 posts but 4 of those are in the editing process. Some of them might never be posted if I can't get them right.

It has rained almost non-stop since 7:00 pm on Thursday night. I've loved every minute. Most of it has been a very light rain but some was heavier. This is one of the only times I wish I was on the third floor of this building; then I could hear rain instead of Bigfoot. We had an amazing round of thunder and lightning this afternoon. One thunder roll lasted a full minute. It went on so long I actually became concerned that it wasn't thunder. Here is what the kids splashed in once the rain let up. Sorry for the bad quality -- it's a cell phone picture.



I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I had seen 4 rainbows in one week. We've seen 3 or 4 more since then. The summer weather in Denver is perfect for rainbows. There is a brief, light rain shower almost every afternoon about 2 hours before sunset. This makes for the perfect angle of sunlight against clouds and dissipating rain. I captured one on my phone.



I think I might be developing a latex allergy. I've been at this job for over 4 months and I use latex gloves at least half a dozen times per day. Latex allergies can show up after repeated exposure and I think it's happening to me. My hands itch a lot at work. I put two and two together on Wednesday last week and started carrying nitrile gloves in my pocket. I noticed a little difference so I'll keep it up and see what happens.

We see quite a bit of wildlife around here. Rabbits are every where. Prairie dogs are every where and then some. There is a stretch of empty road near here with barren fields on both sides. Cresting the hill there can be a bit surreal because occasionally the prairie dogs seem as if they have taken over the road as well as the fields. I haven't hit one yet but I have a bad feeling that it's only a matter of time. Speaking of wildlife, here's a snake we saw one afternoon at Jennifer and Caleb's apartment. Can you see it?



Dinner is an interesting affair here some nights. We discuss our favorite and least favorite parts of the day. Sometimes we talk about the funniest parts of our day, which inevitably includes someone's experience with a fart. Kids. Sometimes we find funny things in our food. These conjoined carrots, for example.



We've been enjoying the Olympics as a family almost every night since the opening ceremonies. I get such a kick out of watching the kids cheer for the athletes. This is the first time they are really big enough to get anything out of the Games. And still, they don't grasp the enormity of it. Solomon asked me tonight if Uncle Jonathan has been in the Olympics. (According to Solomon, Uncle Jonathan hung the moon.)

Their favorite event is 'gernastics' and they keep asking me where the next 'Ulumpics' will be. I've tried correcting the pronunciation but it's not sticking. It's okay, though; by the time the next Olympics rolls around they'll be saying it correctly and I'll miss these mispronunciations. I tried to explain to the kids that the Summer Olympics are every 4 years and the Winter Olympics are every 4 years and that they are evenly spaced. That was a little too much to comprehend, though.

I feel as if there was something else I wanted to say here but I'm drawing a blank now. I guess that means I should wrap this up and go scrub a toilet. Don't you wish you were here?

Conflict

I've spent today being annoyed and happy, by turns.

Annoyed that I couldn't sleep in longer after staying up too late. Happy that at least I didn't have to get up for work.

Annoyed that the kids are bickering with each other. Happy that they are here and not in Albuquerque.

Annoyed that the Olympics are on so late at night. Happy that the Olympics are on.

Annoyed that there is so much school shopping still to do. Happy that I did find everything we need. (And grateful that a lot was provided.)

Annoyed that the boys insist on playing loud 'battle' games. Happy that they are playing together.

Annoyed that my eldest finds it perfectly acceptable to burst out in ear-splitting shouts of joy at the drop of a hat. Happy that he is so happy.

Annoyed that the summer break isn't longer. Happy that the school is such a good one.

All this conflict has given me a headache. I'm annoyed by that. I'm happy that it's bed time.

Beware the Talking Toys

So I'm hooked on The Sims. I could play this game all day if pesky things like work and children didn't get in the way. You think I'm kidding, don't you? I'm not.

The game is pretty interesting. For example, if a Sim leaves his or her child alone in the house, even for 5 minutes, the Sims version of Child Protective Services takes the child away and another Sim family can adopt him. Sims can have fights with each other and apologize afterwards -- or not. Some Sims don't get along simply because their personalities don't mesh well. Child Sims can play with toys. And here's where it gets freaky: they have a talking toy.

Talking toys have always sort of freaked me out. My children have had their fair share and I am less than pleased when they get a new one. They are loud and obnoxious. And they never cease to scare the living daylights out of me at various inopportune moments. Ever stepped on a baby doll in the dark and had it squawk "Ma-ma!" in an otherwise silent house? What about when the batteries run down and the "Ma-ma!" begins to sound like a demon? And my personal favorite are the toys that sense not only when a person is close enough to be engaged in play but hasn't peed her pants in quite some time. That's loads of fun. Needless to say, I'm not a fan of the talking toys.

When I saw that my Sim's child had a talking teddy bear I was intrigued but not necessarily freaked out. After all, the toy is safely ensconced within the parameters of the game; I'm not going to step on it in my children's room at night and it's not going to talk to me in a demon voice. Little did I know what was to happen.

The first time I noticed the talking teddy bear, nothing untoward happened to to my Sim family, or to me for that matter. In the second game I played, I purchased a few toys, including a talking teddy bear, for my Sims' unborn child. One night, while my Sim couple was sleeping peacefully, a burglar broke into their home. Fortunately, my Sim family had an alarm system and the Sim police were summoned to apprehend the criminal. Insurance covered their losses. (See, just like real life, right?)

During the ensuing chaos the pregnant mother was awakened and decided that she would like a bubble bath to calm her nerves. Her poor husband, feeling a little rattled himself, picked up the talking teddy bear from the baby's room and took it to the bathroom to entertain his wife during her bath. She was not amused and her husband left the teddy bear on the floor of the bathroom and went back to bed.

Being a benevolent controller, I noticed that my pregnant Sim mother was beginning to get hungry but she made no move to leave the bathtub. I waited for her hygiene indicator to move all the way to green and she still did not get out of the tub. I told her to leave the tub and get some food. She didn't. Then I noticed that her bladder indicator was nearing a dangerous shade of orange and tried to get her to use the toilet. She remained in her bubble bath.

She sat there for hours until her husband awoke and went to check on her. He attempted to talk her out of the bath and was unsuccessful. Despairing, he went to the kitchen for his own breakfast and I had him call to her again to see if she could be bribed from the tub with food. Nothing. Her poor husband went to work, no doubt hoping she'd be out of the bathtub by the time he came home.

By this time, most personal indicators were in the red zone. Her bladder was dangerously near exploding and her poor stomach was completely empty. Both her social and fun indicators were maxed out in the negative. Somehow, her comfort and environment levels were in the prime green level, though. She was starving and needed to pee in the worst way, but darn it! She was still enjoying the bubble bath.

I was perplexed as to why she would stay in the tub so long when she obviously had other needs and had been told to fulfill them. I watched her for most of the day, hoping that she would move but she didn't. Finally, it occurred to me that maybe she couldn't move. I switched my view of the bathroom and saw that the sink and -- you guessed it -- the talking teddy bear were blocking her way out of the bathtub. I deleted the teddy bear.

When I switched back to the active view, my pregnant Sim mother got out of the tub, dressed herself and was visited by the Grim Reaper. She collapsed on to the floor and an urn appeared in her place.

I was shocked. The diabolical talking teddy bear killed her! She was too freaked out by the stinking thing to get out of the bathtub. And so she starved to death. The senseless devastation!

And then I was alerted to her husband coming home from work. If I was this torn up, imagine his sadness at seeing the remains of his wife and baby in an urn on the bathroom floor!! I didn't think he could handle it. First the robbery, then this?! He'd never recover.

I did the only logical thing I could do. I quit the game without saving before he came upstairs.

Seen on a T-shirt Today

Jesus Loves You
But I'm His Favorite

Really? Really? I don't think there was anything in Jesus' message that suggested he was out to play favorites. In fact, most stories about Jesus point out his fairness and equality.

I could see this t-shirt being somewhat sarcastic in a ridiculing manner if it were worn by someone who is anti-Christian. But the woman wearing this t-shirt today is an acquaintance of mine and I know she calls herself a Christian. I am confused.

Children See. Children Do.

This video actually moved me to tears.

Thursday Thirteen: Reasons to Smile This Week

1. The kids have wanted to sleep with me every night since they came home.

2. One of the doctors brought a "That Was Easy" button to work today. He told me to drop something and ask him to pick it up. I dropped my pen and he picked it up, pushed the button in his lab coat pocket and laughed hysterically.

3. The little girl that yelled "I just farted on the doctor's chair!"

4. The other little girl that swore up and down that there was nothing wrong with her stomach. Or her ears. Or her eyes. Or her throat. Or anything else.

5. The boy that looked at me after I put on his band-aid and said, with utmost sincerity, "I'll take care of this because it's a boo-boo."

6. Samuel saying "I'm sleepy. Can we go somewhere else fun now?" as we were headed home.

7. The thrilled "Mommy!" (complete with neck-breaking hugs) I get when I pick up the kids every day after work.

8. Solomon offering to let Samuel play the new video game first even though he was dying to play. I didn't even prompt him to do it.

9. The picture Miriam drew for me yesterday just because she missed me while I was at work.

10. Thanks to a community organization, all the kids' school supplies are packed up and ready to go in two weeks. Dang it! Make that one week!

11. Brownies.

12. The long, slow, soaking rain yesterday and today's much cooler temperatures.

13. My new guaranteed 3-day weekends every week.