Interesting Life Anecdotes: The Revolving Tupperware

Now that I've had a BabyGirl, I have read a lot of information on the topic of sleep that i never would have read otherwise.  One fact i remember reading is that we each have our own biorhythm that we are born with (i know what you're thinking: wow! rocket science! never would have guessed that one!).  Duh, it's true, we all know some people are early birds and some are night owls.

Well, I'm a night owl.  I always get a burst of energy at night.  I am at my top performance when i can stay up til about midnight and sleep til 9am.  I really don't even settle into a good sleep until after 6am.  Anyway, i got home from the day's activities and had a hankering to write.  Except i couldn't think of a single topic.  I thought and thought; no success.  I was washing dishes for about 30 minutes, and promptly at 9:30pm my mind was filled with about 4 different topics.  I find myself in this position frequently.  I want to write so bad right at bedtime.

So here's the story already.  After the BabyGirl was born and i had so many problems, my friend Laura, who is an amazing cook, made me some lentil soup (which i love).  Some of it i ate and some i put in the freezer for later.  Once later came, i ate it, and then the tupperware sat on my kitchen counter for (no lie) 2 months.  I kept meaning to bring it to church to give it back to her, or take it with me to her house.  I mean, i see her frequently so it was pretty pathetic that i couldn't return her tupperware. 

Then finally i remembered it on Craft Day when we made the adorable penguin.  After such a long time i was embarrassed that i still had it, so i filled it up with trail mix as a decoy.  On that day we were crafting away and needed an afternoon snack, so i said triumphantly, "I brought trail mix!"  I got it out of my bag and set it out on the table and we munched happily while we crafted.  I conveniently left out the part about "I brought trail mix IN YOUR TUPPERWARE."  My plan was to "forget" to take it home with me.  I hoped that it would blend in with all her other tupperwares, since it looks exactly like her other tupperwares, since it is her tupperware.  And she would just put in in her tupperware cabinet without even paying attention.  Or, if she did think it was my tupperware, she would be like me and forget to return it for 2 months.

Well, my plan failed.  Turns out she's way better than me at returning tupperwares.  Less than two weeks later she returned it to me FILLED WITH DELICIOUS HOMEMADE COOKIES.  Oh the shame.  Not only did she return it in a timely manner, she made cookies.  Fabulous cookies, with oatmeal and almonds.  And now, here i am again with the same stinkin' tupperware i could barely return in the first place!  I was so happy to finally get that sucker off my kitchen counter, and now it's back.  Each time it changes hands, the stakes get higher.  Lentil soup, then store-bought trail mix, then yummy cookies.  I'm pretty much going to have to fill it with champagne when i give it back to her.
 

Just a few quick things about Christmas

There are a few things that have become Christmas regulars at our house.  You know those items that you haul up from the storage locker every year that really mean a lot to you?  Here are a few of ours.

Bubble lights!  Most people have a string of bubble lights that you put on the tree.  We only have this one.  I forget who gave it to us.  I love bubble lights because it reminds me of my Grandmother.  She had them on her Christmas tree when i was little, and i thought they were so cool.  My Grandmother has a polished vintage style about her, and these lights are a part of that.  The Professor had bubble lights at his house growing up, so he likes them too.

 Christmas penguin.  Oh what a story here.  A few years ago i was working night shift in the ICU on Christmas Eve.  We had all brought in food for a Christmas potluck.  It sucks working on the holidays, but because everyone is in the same boat, we make it special.  Alyssa had brought caramel dip for apples, but hadn't had time to get any apples.  Once all the patients were tucked in, she and i went to the cafeteria to buy a bunch of apples.  We swung by Starbucks afterwards to pick up drinks for all the nurses.  The guy working at Starbucks admired our apples.  Alyssa offered one to him but he refused, saying, "I love apples SO MUCH that i can't accept one from you because it's just too generous of a gift."  We persisted, "Dude we have 6 apples, you can have one."  He was so greatful that he gave us each a Christmas penguin for free!  (shh, don't tell Starbucks). 

Nativity Scene.  It's from Israel and it's made out of ______.  How embarrassing, i can't remember which wood it's made out of!  It says on the box, but the box is down in the storage locker.  Hmm.  Oh, olive!  It's made out of olive!

Christmas card from cousins Lare and Amy.  Depicted here are a bunch of Christmas cards.  The one i am referring to is the bottom right.  Lare and Amy live in Georgia and have the cutest kids on the planet.  They are our heroes, and we hope to be them when we grow up.  Every year we get so excited about their Christmas card.  This year it didn't arrive until December 23.  We had gotten so worried that we wouldn't get one!  We thought, "Did we offend them?"  or, "Did they fall upon financial hardship and had to cut the Christmas budget?"  But at last it came.


 

I have some mad skills

. . . when it comes to cutting out snowflakes.

I'm sorry i haven't written anything recently.  It's very weird - over the Christmas holiday i actually had some free time (a rare treat), and i couldn't think of anything to write about.  But now that it's 2 hrs past my bedtime, I have at least 6 stories in my head that i'm dying to get out.

Back to the snowflakes.  I'm nowhere near as talented as my sister Kitty, but i do consider myself pretty accomplished.  It's one of my most favorite things to do at Christmas.  I HATE putting up the Christmas tree, but it would make me perfectly happy to cut out snowflakes for hours and hours.  I got a late start this year, so i don't have very many.  I need a few more to even it out.

 Here are last year's:

Currently Playing With

With all kinds of social media now, you can publicize what you are currently doing.  Facebook tells me that Joe and Peggy were at Name That Restaurant together.  Or that Mary is currently picking up her kids from The Private School They Attend. 

The poor little BabyGirl is too little for Facebook.  Also, she doesn't know English.  And, her typing skills need a lot of work.  So she can't post what music she's currently listening to or what foods she's eating or where she's hanging out with her friends. 

So I'll post it for her!  The BabyGirl is currently playing with these toys:

Yes, you are correct when you tell me that precious few of those items are "toys".  We have the adorable handmade penguin, Tic Tacs, a cheap plastic bracelet from the dollar store, and her cousin Cecelia's Christmas card.  She loves these toys.  The Tic Tacs in particular are her favorite right now.  Oh man she loves them, and i can't say i blame her.  Also, they are a result of my sister's wedding in Georgia back in June, so they are kind of nostalgic (in a hoarder sort of way).   She also likes to "play" with Cecelia, which The Professor and i get a kick out of.

Christmas is now 5 days away (eek!), and the quantity\quality of her toys is about to increase substantially.  Imagine how exciting a shape sorter will be compared to a plastic bracelet!  It might be overwhelming.
 

Two Cute Things

Yesterday was a very ugly day at work.  At some point during the exhausting misery, i was ready to sign up for the Mexican thugs.  Anything sounded better than what i was doing.  I was so angry that it sounded satisfying to show those Mexican drug dealers a thing or two about violence.

Instead, I came home to two very cute things.  I'll show them to you.  I made both of these things myself. 

Here is thing #1.  So cute!  Thing #1 took 10 months to make, and gave me lots of heartburn.

Here is thing #2.  Thing #2 was a lot easier to make than Thing #1.  It is the product of Craft Day with Laura and David.  I'm really very proud of it.  Can you believe i made ANOTHER thing after i only just made the Cinnamon Ornaments???  That's two crafts in one month!  I think i just beat my record for all of 2009.  I really couldn't have done it without Laura's patient tutoring.  She let me use her sewing machine, even though i had no idea how to do it.  I made a mistake every 45 seconds or so, and as a result we stayed at their house much longer than we should have.  I was stubbornly determined to finish this project in one day.  I've known myself for a long time, and one thing is certain: if i lay a project aside, i will never come back to it.

Recently I've been outsourcing all my crafting needs to my sister.  If i need something made, i tell her to make it.  I'm the oldest so she has to do what i say.  But making this craft was kind of a turning point for me.  I think i could really get the hang of this sewing thing.  And, if you are especially nice to me, i might just make something for you!

  

Snow Day Narrative

We had a very fun impromptu snow day on Sunday.

It wasn't the snow that was imprompu, it was what we did with the day.  It came as no surprise that it snowed.  It snows a lot here.  What was a surprise was that it was practically a blizzard.  I woke up that morning at 7am (thank you BabyGirl) and checked the weather online.  It predicted 30 degrees with light snow.  No big deal.  I looked out the window and it wasn't snowing.  Appeared to be a regular day.  I didn't bundle up, and i wore cute shoes.

The minute i stepped out the front door, it became clear that this was NOT "light snow".  My cute shoes were not appropriate for the conditions.  We already had 2 inches of snow on the ground.  The Professor and I had divided the labor, so my job was to go out and warm up the car while he put the BabyGirl into her fuzzy suit and strapped her in the 50 pound carseat.  As soon as i got outside i was attacked by the massive wind.  Our car was only 30 feet away, and i could barely walk to it for being blown so hard.  I couldn't breathe in the wind.  The task of "warming up the car" now included scraping the snow off.  Of course the snow that i swiped off got blown right into my face.  Ugh, it was so miserable.  No born-and-bred Southerner should experience conditions like this.  I laughed out loud at how ludicrous it was.  I tried to open the car door, but it was frozen shut.  Fortunately i yanked harder and it opened a little, but the wind was blowing against it so i had a hard time getting it out far enough to get in.

We managed to get all of us in the car and sped off to church.  I'm always running a few minutes late anyway, and we hadn't budgeted the extra time for wind and snow.  Also, the roads hadn't been cleared because it's Sunday, so driving was treacherous and we had to go slow.  We made it to church and had to do the whole routine in reverse.  The Professor dropped me off with the BabyGirl and then went to find somewhere to park.  On the drive i had told him, "you know what, we'll just pay to park at a meter today.  I think the blizzard justifies paying to park."  And then when we arrived we remembered that you can't park on that street when the snow is over 2 inches.  BOO. 

I walked into church and saw Peter and Hana!  Yes, she did email me a few weeks ago to say they would be in town, but i completely forgot until that moment.  After church we tried to figure out lunch plans with them plus Tripp and Laura.  It was pretty funny.  There were a lot of limitations to balance.  3 hungry babies, tons of snow, each of us in our own car with a carseat, Tripp had to count, and nobody delivers north of Howard.  Finally we got it to work out.  We ordered Shabuka take-out and went to Tripp\Laura's place.

The snow and wind had continued all during church, so it was truly nasty out.  Peter and Hana had planned to drive back home that afternoon, but the weather was even worse in their town, so they had to stay another night and go back the next day.  Once The Professor and I got inside Tripp\Laura's, we kinda wanted to stay until the next day too!

We ate Shabuka, which was dee-licious!  Oh so yummy.  Tripp forgot about his naan until he had finished all his food, and had nothing to dip it in.  The Professor had lots of leftover sauce that he'd eaten the chicken out of, so he offered it to Tripp, which made him so happy.  Now that we were dry, inside, and had full tummies, we were cozy and content.  The Professor and I had originally planned to get a lot of housework done that afternoon, but the chance to spend a snow day hanging out with friends was much more alluring.

The guys watched the Bears game while the women played Settlers of Catan.  You see, we used to be really big Settlers of Catan people.  We played it all the time.  Now that each of us have babies, we haven't played in forever.  It was nice to pick it up again after a long absence, but it definitely wasn't competitive like the old days.  We had to stop midway through to feed all the babies.  When we came back to it, Laura won!!!  It was her first ever Catan victory.  Congratulations Laura!

I'll have to say, this snow day was very nice.  It isn't often that life slows down for snow.  The way i was raised, the least little bit of snow brought all of civilization to a halt.  You dropped what you were doing, no matter what it was, and went sledding.  Yes you could still see the green grass thru the light dusting of snow, but you went sledding anyway.  It's not like that here.  Here you get 4 feet of snow and you still go to work.  You put on your boots and go about your business.  But today, The Professor and I threw our plans to the wind.  We stayed inside to play games and watch football.  We put relationships first.

I made something!

I'm so proud of myself:  I made something!!  Ha ha ha!!!  I can't believe it!

You see, i really like crafts.  But i have the attention span of a 5 year old.  If a project takes longer than one of the BabyGirl's naps, then i loose interest.  (and she's a very short napper.)  I possess the kind of personality that is all about the big picture, the overarching theme, the burst of inspiration.  I have no capacity for detail or follow-thru. 

Also, I just don't have time for crafts.  Number one, December is the single busiest month of the year at work and i consistently work 14 hour shifts, getting home at 11pm.  Number two, I feel like my every moment is consumed with The Meal Cycle.  It's like The Nitrogen Cycle but with your daily meals.  You go grocery shopping, you wash\chop\prep, you cook the meal, you eat the meal, you wash all the dishes you used, and you start over at the beginning.  Somewhere in between you also try to do some laundry so you have clean underwear.  No time for crafts.

There's an unspoken rule in the Mom Club.  You must follow the rule or you get excommunicated.  The rule is that you have to make awesome, creative home projects and then blog about it.  Lots of pictures of the step-by-step process as well as the final product.  There are approximately eleventy million blogs about "look what i made".  Incidentally, these crafty moms are very skilled at The Meal Cycle. 

My mom and both my sisters are kick-butt at creative projects.  We're talking real pros here.  I knew i had the genetic oomph to make this happen, so i selected a craft that met my specifications.  Minimal supplies, minimal time.  And it worked!  I did it!!  I made Cinnamon Ornaments.  I had to laugh at myself, because i didn't prepare for it at all.  Wouldn't you know, i didn't have enough cinnamon.  The instructions specifically said how much cinnamon you would need, and i thought, "surely that is the quantity of your basic little spice jar of cinnamon."  No, my friends, it is the quantity of 4 little jars of cinnamon.  Nonetheless, i plowed through.  Do we postpone or reschedule our craft simply because we don't have the necessary materials?  No way.  The mood had struck me in that particular moment, and that was the moment for crafting. 

And here it is.  My ability to photograph my accomplishments for public display clearly needs some work.  Remember, the skills of a 5 year old.

Ultimately I will tie some snazzy Christmas ribbon on them to hang them up.

My hopes and dreams would be to make Emily's wine cork board, but it's going to take me a long time to save up that many corks.
 

Making a Difference: The Bravest Woman in Mexico

My sister told me about Marisol Valles Garcia, a 20 year old girl who has been named "The Bravest Woman in Mexico."  I'm going to give you a link to a news article about her, but here's the nutshell.  In a small Mexican town on the Texas border, gangs and drug lords have taken over.  There is rampant violence.  The drug groups are known for killing mayors, police officers, anyone who stands in their way.  They killed the chief of police and left his head outside the police station.

After his death, the position was vacant for a long time (understandably so).  Until this woman stepped up. 

 

She is 20 years old, mother of one child, is in school for criminology.  Not exactly who you would expect to lead the fight against serious bad guys.  Her reason for taking the job?  "I'm doing this for my people," she said, "I'm tired of all the drug violence."  This woman is my hero.  It's a situation that looks hopeless.  That looks like evil will win.  Not a single man in the whole town had the cajones to step up and fight.  And now Marisol, barely old enough to vote, is taking a stand.

All that stuff i said a few posts ago about making sacrifices for my BabyGirl?  Now i'm embarrassed by it.  That i could consider my job to be a "sacrifice", and here is this woman who goes to work every day knowing she might get killed.  The fact that she also has a baby makes it so much more meaningful for me.  On the one hand, she has the courage and determination to make the world a better place for her child.  But on the other hand, the process of making the world a better place might just turn her child into an orphan. 

I pray frequently for Marisol.  I pray that God would keep her safe, and bless her efforts.  I pray that He would protect her baby.  I pray that He would stop all the drug activity in her town.  I pray that He will use Marisol to make a difference.

There's a scene in the movie "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" that comes to my mind.  During the final battle, the big super-scary King of the Ring-Wraiths is kicking butt.  He's huge, and he has a big ole mace that takes out multiple people in one swing.  He's sort of like a ghost, so it's difficult to kill him because he's not really alive to begin with.  Anyway, Eowyn is disguised as a man, and finds herself in a one-on-one fight with the Nazgul King.  He says to her mockingly, "No man can kill me."  She dramatically rips of her helmet, shakes out her long blond hair, and replies, "I am no man."

I can imagine those rough, tough, hateful thugs in Mexico laughing when they heard about little Marisol becoming police chief.  And i can imagine what Marisol's family probably said when she told them she'd decided to take the job.  Her abuela probably said, "But Marisol, no man in Mexico wants that position."  And then Marisol could say, "I am no man." 

It gives me goosebumps.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about Marisol's situation.  For some reason it has affected me profoundly.  You will likely see several more posts about this, because i have more to say than i can fit in one day.  It brought back a memory of something i experienced in Mexico many years ago.  I was in high school, on a church mission trip to a few little towns in Mexico.  Our church sponsored two orphanages, so we went to help out and encourage the children there.  There was a married couple who ran the orphanage, and they had a daughter named Carolina who was about 18 years old.  She also worked at the orphanage.  She told a story about a time when she felt very helpless.  She saw the poverty and crime and illness in her village and cried out to God, "Senor, donde esta Su mano? [Lord, where is Your hand?]"  She heard Him say to her, "Carolina, tu eres mis manos [you are my hands]."

That has really stuck with me.  My life is a breeze compared to Carolina and Marisol, but we all go through times when things are bad and we say, God where are you?  When will you intervene? Do you see what's going on here?  Do you care?

The answer is that He does see; He does care.  He will intervene, but He needs to use our hands to do it.  He uses our hands to hug an orphan.  He uses our hands to care for the sick.  He uses our hands to feed the hungry.  He uses our hands to fight injustice.

Take my life and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days,
Let them flow in endless praise.

Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee.

For further reading, here is the news article:
http://abcnews.go.com/International/mexico-police-chief-murdered/story?id=12294819.