Hiker or Bum

What is more important truth or kindness? Jeff is reading a book about a man who hiked from the tip of Florida to the top of Maine. Jeff and I dream of through hiking the Appalachian trail when Lily graduates from high school. This through hiking thing is when you carry all you need and hike all day and live out of your pack. I imagine that through hikers look a little scruffy.

In the book Jeff is reading while hiking on surface streets the man is offered money by a couple of different people. These people are assuming he is homeless I imagine. The man politely accepts the money with many thanks. This gentleman is not by any means needing any financial assistance.

Jeff feels that accepting the money is less than honest. He feels that the hiker should gently explain that he is a hiker and not homeless. Otherwise he is accepting money under false pretenses and in essence lying.


I can't help but feel bad for those people giving out money to a person they think is in need. Imagine you were trying to be kind and wouldn't it be embarrassing to find out you were making assumptions? I wonder if these kind hearted folks would ever reach out again after being rebuked, however kindly it is done? I think of them going away from the encounter feeling great after having helped someone or going away from the encounter embarrassed and dejected. I would hate to hurt the feelings of someone who was trying to be nice, to ruin their day.

I guess this is the difference between me and Jeff, he says I over-think things. I say I lead with my heart. He is compulsively honest. I am compulsively kind. What about you, who do you agree with here?

NaBloPoMo - Fail

What can I say? I wish that failing to post everyday in the month of January was the worst thing that happened last week.

So how are you all doing?

Road Rage

Is it just me or is everyone on the road today a meth addict? I had to spent 2 1/2 hours driving today.

According to Lynanne today is delurking day. If you are reading this post you must reveal yourself by leaving a comment. Inquiring minds want to know who you are.

2008: Year in Review

The structure of this meme is the first sentence of the first post of each month for the year. I stole this meme without permission from Liza Was Here

January: Last night I was very tired and wanted to go to bed as early as possible.

February: Jeff and I decided to go ahead and buy a new mini-van.

March: During our last move the boxes carrying all our loose pictures was destroyed.

April: My husband is driving home as we speak.

May: Lily is nearly five and we finally moved her into a twin bed.

June: Jeff just found out that he passed his final comprehensive examination with distinction and now he has earned his Master's Degree in Military History of World War II.

July: I am beginning to recover from my cold.

August: Lily got me up at 5:45 A.M. this morning.

September: We made it home safe and sound.

October: Last week I got a letter from the library telling me that we had two overdue books.

November: Every time I vote it reminds me of my grandma.

December: Lily is having some belly issues as a result of her current antibiotic.

What I learned from this exercise is that I such at the opening sentence. Seems I use it more to set the scene than to be exciting and draw people in. I thought the titles of my posts were a lot more exciting than the first sentences. Something to work on I suppose. What about you anyone care to play?

A New Tooth Brush

At the store the other day I remembered that I wanted to buy a new toothbrush. Mine didn't seem to have soft bristles. I thought as long as I was there I would get one for Jeff too. His is the same as mine so it must not be soft bristles either. I must have forgotten to check the bristle type when I bought them last.

I was looking for the cheapest ones that specifically said soft. I found a package that sold two tooth brushes for the price of one and specifically labeled the brushes as soft. Sold. When I got them home and was taking the two new tooth brushes out of their packages I noticed that one was yellow and one was green.

I decided to put the green one on Jeff's side and the yellow one on my side. I just thought green was more boyish or manly and Jeff might not enjoy a yellow toothbrush. I didn't think anything else about the tooth brushes. We share a toothbrush holder mine is always the toothbrush on the left, Jeff's is always the one on the right. My drawer is also on the left and I keep some of my things on the counter on the left. Jeff's drawer, counter space and cupboard are on the right. I thought the placement of the toothbrush and the color would be a clear indication to Jeff which one was his. I didn't really think about making a point of telling him which one was his.

A week went by and then one day Jeff was about to brush his teeth and he asked me which one of the tooth brushes was his. I told him the green one. He told me oops he had been using my toothbrush all week. He thought since green is my favorite color the green one would naturally be mine. The funny thing is that each and every time he brushed his teeth the entire week with my toothbrush he was standing about six feet away from me and could have easily asked me. He said I was sleeping. I would have been happy to have been woken up to avoid having shared a toothbrush for a week. EWWWW.

Now he thinks it is ok for me to continue to use the yellow soiled toothbrush while he moves on to the never used green one.

Reading Dooce Causes Fights

I was over at dooce.com the other day watching a video of mom's debating this issue:

which is harder being a mom or being a wife?

I couldn't come up with an answer to that question. I asked my husband what he thought.

Which is harder being a husband or being a father.

He couldn't pick either. But, I was thinking that neither is all that hard, in comparison to life's other challenges. He went on and on about how hard both being a husband and being a father is. HMM. I have to tell you that really hurt my feelings. Big fat meanie. (words borrowed from Junie B. and forbidden to my Lily, but heard all the time). What about you? Which is harder?

Venus

Take a look oustide tonight. Find the moon. Look West. See that really bright star? That is Venus. Check it out, you will thank me!

The Momma Fish

Today while Lily was taking a bath she was much louder than the TV in the living room. She was playing with her toys and just playing. I asked her to use her inside voice. She cried.

Then in a mommy like voice she said: Lily what is wrong.

Crying Lily: wahhh, mommy is being mean to me.

mommy Lily: it is ok sweetie, you will be alright.

crying Lily: wahh, why is mommy so mean to me?

mommy Lily shouts to me: Lily's mom - Lily's mom - this is not Lily this is the mommy fish - why are you being so mean to Lily? If you cannot be nice you will lose your job. Do you understand.

mommy Lily to crying Lily: It is alright Lily don't cry.

Some days I just don't know what to do with that child.

Homework

Tonight I was trying to help Lily with her homework. The assignment was for me to help her understand what her teacher calls the K and C rules. K before e, i, or Y. C before a, o, or u.

I began to explain. Lily's response is:

sometimes c borrows the ssss sound from s. but, the s doesn't mind because the c gives it back when she is done. They are really good friends. Sometimes the c spends the night at the s's house. s likes to share she is really nice.

Sometimes I feel like I have to stand on my head and juggle fire to get that girl to listen to me. Every other word out of my mouth starts Lily on a monologue. She has an enormous imagination, which I am sure is good. I think perhaps it is her imagination which is blocking her receptive language cortex.

I gave her a bath, did the two other homeworks, then we went back to the k and c explanation. She already understood the concept and I guess this was the reason she didn't want to hear it again. I let her explain it to me and then I put her to bed, only 45 minutes past her bedtime. At least her homework was done. And I am thankful that in Kindergarten there is only homework on Tuesdays. Yeah!

Junie B. Jones

I was very worried about Lily starting Kindergarten having never been away from me. Kim suggested reading Lily some books about starting Kindergarten and she gave me a list of recommendations. Shortly thereafter I found myself at the bookstore without Kim’s list. So instead of getting a book recommended to me by a kindergarten teacher I got the first book about kindergarten that I saw at the store. In my defense book stores are a 45 minute drive from my house. We ended up with the book, Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus. This book is about a girl named Junie B. and her first day of kindergarten. It is a chapter book, but intended for younger kids.

At first Lily wasn’t interested in listening to this book and she started kindergarten without being prepared by a book. She did alright. I continued to try and read this book to Lily on regular basis. The book is filled with naughty forbidden words like: stupid, dump, and shut up. Lily picked up all these words. Soon she was getting in trouble on a regular basis for her inappropriate vocabulary. Jeff suggested that we stop reading the Junie B. book. However, by then Lily was really enjoying the book. We went from her listening to one page at a time to one chapter and then to her sitting still and listening to the whole entire book in one sitting. This took about an hour.

The fact that Lily has a receptive language delay does not mean she is incapable of receiving language and listening, it means it takes a good bit of concentration. I feel that the more she listens the better she will get at listening. Exercising the receptive language muscle. For this reason I continue on with the Junie B. book. In fact we checked out more of them from the library. Lily is happy to spend an hour everyday reading the same Junie B. book. I however needed to expand our repertoire.

She got the next few Junie B. books for Christmas. We continue to enjoy the books on a daily basis. I am glad to have a bit of variety. Lily continues to struggle with remembering what is appropriate for Junie B. is not appropriate for Lily.

In the books Junie B. often screams, just like Lily in real life. Whenever the words are printed in all caps and it says that Junie B. screamed that particular passage I scream it out while reading. Lily lives for that part. She asks me to repeat it over and over again. I insist that we take turns. Junie B. screams whole paragraphs of text at a time and Lily read it. We do it over and over again, screaming at the top of our lungs. We dissolve into giggles. Jeff will be in another room and come to see what in the world is going on. Just reading a book we will tell him. He shakes his head. He is not at all thrilled with Junie B.

USS Alabama

Here we are at the USS Alabama. This ship was used during WWII and is now a museum in Mobile, Alabama. We had a lot of fun touring the ship and a submarine.

 

 

 

 

Bellingrath Gardens

Another fun family adventure we had this Christmas vacation is a trip to Bellingrath Gardens. We are attempting to change the way we interact as a family. Doing more adventures. Spending time together in healthy ways. Avoiding eating out, going to movies, and buying new things. Christmas vacation has been a blast. I can't remember the last time we spent this much time together as a family.

The Black Creek Trail: a family hike

On New Year's day we decided to take a hike on the black creek trail here in Mississippi. We have been trying to get out and enjoy our assignment here.

NaBloPoMo

Happy New Year. I hope you all had a great New Year's eve.

I have decided to try the NaBloPoMo ( National Blog Posting Month) again this January. The theme is change. I am inviting you to join me. You don't have to post about change, you just have to post every day for the entire month or at least try.

Posting everyday that is a change for me. I haven't been posting a lot lately. My creative juices have not been flowing. I am hoping this challenge will help me to get back on track.