Mothers…sigh

Reagan’s ballet class had its parent watch day today. Not being anywhere near what one could consider a dance mom, I had totally forgotten about this and was trying to convince another mom to skip out on class and go to Starbucks with me. She, not being a dance mom, but still having a little bit of sense in her brain reminded me that our attendance would probably be missed.

Once I “remembered” that it was parent watch day I was happy to go in and watch these eight little girls tendu, plié and battement all in a line along the barre with their instructor calling out movements and trilling her voice every once in a while when she was either pleased or surprised or dismayed.

Imagine my surprise when, amongst the girls practicing at the barre, a boy, maybe 4 or 5, went rolling across the floor. He started at one end of the room and slowly rolled his body halfway across the room. And even then his own mother didn’t do too much to get him back over to her.

Believe you me, had that been my child he would have made about one half of a roll before he would be snatched up and given a talking to. Nothing from this mother, not one single word or admonishment. Not even a, “now Johnny, give your sister a turn in the lime light, you silly little mama’s boy.”

My friend and I just gave each other the look. Do parents have to be taught common sense rules nowadays?

That’s par for the course for the mothers of this class though. Every week the girls go to class and the boys (including body-mop above) run around the tiny waiting area, yelling, screaming, fighting, running, and being oblivious to every other person in the waiting area. The most that is ever done is a mother might ask her son to please quiet down.*

Lady, you need to tell your son to quiet down. Body-mop’s mom needed to snatch his butt off the floor as soon as he started wiggling away from her.

These are the mothers that are raising these boys who are, in years to come, going to want to date my daughters. I have a vested interested in their child rearing and what I see from many mothers today scares me.

*Since when has it become common practice to ask our kids to do things (like behave)? If you want your child to do something then tell him. And then expect him to obey. And then hold him accountable if he doesn’t. Common sense, right? When you ask him you’re naturally giving him the option to say either yes or no. Take control and take that option away by telling him what to do.

I went to NYC and all I got was…

NOT a lousy t-shirt!

A friend and I headed up to NYC for the day this past weekend (for $24, I know!). She lived in the city for a while so we knew exactly where to go and how to get there. We headed down to SoHo to do some shopping. It was such a beautiful and warm day. We did lots of walking and lots of shopping. A little bit of eating too. As much as I love clothes and shoes what I’m so excited I got are these:

Images by Edie Pijpers

Both are painted by artist, Edie Pijpers. We made it to Union Square where lots of artists of all different mediums were selling their wares. We both fell in love with Edie’s paintings as soon as we saw them. I only got these two because I restrained myself. Take a look at her work on Etsy. I want to get several of the blue pieces as well. There’s a cute, magical quality to them that makes you happy as soon as you see them. Sigh… I want to live in that world.

I plan on blogging more about my family’s weekend, but I wanted to show you Edie’s amazing artwork.

Boxed Blessings

Being the cheap frugal person that I am it is very hard for me to fork over any money for superfluous stuff for the family, even food. I don’t buy lots of different boxed crackers and cookies and Pop Tarts and various delicious treats. Not only do I cringe at the prices I just don’t have the room. Our pantry is literally 6 inches deep and and maybe 2 ½ feet wide. Add to that my fluctuating desire to eat healthier and I usually eschew the boxed goodies unless I can get them for pennies (Harris Teeter Super Double events usually allow me to get things for pennies or even free).

When Reagan participated in the AWANA Olympics several weekends ago (her team won first place!!) the kids were given a box of goodies when they got back to the church as a reward and a thank you from one of the team leaders. We didn’t go back to the church though. Instead, we went to a Cajun vineyard in northern Virginia (who knew!) for a gumbo tasting.

All that to say, Reagan didn’t get her box of goodies until last night. We were expecting something like this:

A box of a variety of cookies or crackers. What we got, though, was this:

Virtually the whole cookie/cracker aisle! It is truly a blessing, especially since I am so tight.

We are not in want to say the least. My  husband makes good money and we have enough for our needs and wants. It is still a blessing to receive a treat like this. In fact, I think I may have Reagan pick out the things that she doesn’t want or doesn’t think we’ll eat and donate those to the food bank for people who really are in need. A food tithe per se.

Initiative Inadequacy

One of the quickest ways to feel bad about yourself is to look at those around you. I’m not usually one to play the comparison game but lately I have been feeling like I’m coming up short in several areas when I look at some women around me.

This weekend I received the latest edition of my college’s alumnae newspaper. I went to school with some smart, ambitious, active and well-rounded women. For each newspaper edition, alumnae can submit details about what’s new in their lives. And I’m blown away each time I get the paper. Granted you can take anything dull and make it shiny if you rub it enough, but these women weren’t padding their resumes with fluffy words and nice adjectives–they were simply stating what they are doing. For instance, one of my fellow graduates is now the southern Africa regional environmental and health officer for the State Department and is living in Africa. Another fellow graduate is a Grammy award-winning singer in a fabulous country duo. Another is a neurologist with a specialty in epilepsy. And what am I doing?

I sit at home in a nice little townhouse everyday trying to teach one kid while trying to at least pay a minute’s attention to the other.

Sorry, Mom and Dad, for wasting all that money on a private college education.* I want my own “job in Africa”. Maybe I should just learn how to pad my resume with the things I’m already doing…

Logically and consciously I know these feelings aren’t valid. I firmly believe that I am doing God’s will for my life right now. I believe I am in this townhouse, teaching my children at home because that is where He wants me. And I am truly satisfied–99% of the time. When you are doing God’s will for your life there is nothing else that you should be doing. Whether it’s staying home with your children or being the president of a corporation, you will feel at ease when you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing. Knowing that doesn’t prevent the comparison monster to rear its ugly head every once in a while. And then I compare. And then I feel inadequate.

As I write this I’m realizing there is something these women have that I don’t tend to exhibit in my life: initiative. While not downplaying all the things that I do now, I know I could be doing more. I’ve had several “project ideas” (for lack of a better term) float through my head at various times but I’ve lacked the initiative to act on them. Getting arrested while protesting at the Capitol has not been one of them, just so you know.

I think what I admire in these women is their drive and desire to accomplish the goals which they have set before them. And that they set goals in the first place. It is very easy to become complacent. What I need to do, as an addendum to the goals I set at the beginning of the year**, is to determine to have more initiative–to set some goals and act on these “project ideas”. What is important is that I make sure these ideas are things that God would want me to do.

I don’t want to do it for the accolades or to make myself busier. Lord knows, I really don’t want to be busier. I know I will be satisfied though if I am busy doing something He wants me to do.

Now, to find some initiative…

*We didn’t choose the college because it was private. We chose it because of its small size, teacher/student ratio and beautiful campus. In fact, I almost couldn’t go because we weren’t going to be able to come up with the money. Thank you, God, for scholarships, loans and grants.
**Doing well in 3 out of 4 of those goals isn’t too shabby! Maybe my initiative should be finding time to sew…

Trotting through Arlington

Welcome fellow Blogtrotters! My name is Vicki and my family and I currently live in Arlington, Virginia. We have lived in many a city, state and even country. Second to Germany, Arlington has been my favorite place to live, and we’ve only been here for eight months. If you’ve been blogtrotting long you’ll remember Zahra’s post on Arlington, and it was a fabulous one. So, I’ll try to give you my take on Arlington.

When many non-locals mention or think about Arlington they are thinking about Arlington National Cemetery.

That is a humbling site to behold, but Arlington is so much more.

It is a city and county all at the same time. It is old mixed with new. Tradition mixed with modernity. Concrete and parks. Corporations and families. Small-town neighborhoods sitting a block from big-city businesses. Bicycle paths and HOV lanes. We’re a short metro ride to professional sports teams: football, baseball, basketball, soccer and hockey. Across the Potomac is Washington, D.C.; 1.5 hours west are the mountains; 3 hours east are the beaches. Reagan International Airport can get you around the world. Everything is at your fingertips in Arlington.

Arlington has a lot of:

  • dogs — more prevalent than kids, which reminds me a lot of Europe.
  • joggers — we’ve got to be one of the healthiest cities in the world.
  • Starbucks — no less than 23!
  • parks — the Arlington website lists 127 of them! Many of these are great playgrounds nestled in the many neighborhoods.
  • neighborhoods — around 67 – 14 of those are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (including mine!)
  • libraries — 8 public ones
  • restaurants and stores — reminds me a lot like Europe as well. Outdoor cafés, dogs at those cafés. Outdoor stores (as opposed to stores in malls), dogs in those stores. Here’s an example:

Here are some things around Arlington that we have enjoyed:

The county fair! The Arlington County Fair is located right in the city because there is no “country” in the county to have the fair.

I even met the First Couple! . . . or a close facsimile

We’ve met Sergeant York, the horse who carried President Reagan’s boots during his funeral procession. Sergeant York lives at Fort Myer with the U.S. 3rd Infantry’s Army Old Guard Caisson Platoon.

The Pentagon Memorial (The Pentagon is in Arlington). Each day thousands of people drive by the Memorial on I395 and each day thousands of people work alongside it. It’s a quiet place to be, even among the populous:

We saw a commercial being filmed. Several months later I found out it was for Get Square VA (a tax amnesty program). This was filmed in the Clarendon neighborhood:

Here is the beautiful fountain in Clarendon. We got in trouble for letting the girls dip their hands in it (oops!):

It’s not all warm and sunny weather around here. During the winter we got more snow than ever before!

There’s a little bit of everything in Arlington and we’ve just begun to scratch the surface. I wish you were all here to experience it with us! Thanks for stopping by!

If you would like to get an in-depth, albeit hilarious, idea of one of the bright and growing areas of Arlington, the Orange Corridor (because the orange line of the metro runs through it), watch this “rap” video. It pokes fun at how safe Arlington is and it proves how many Starbucks we have. I love it. And I love Arlington.

Cultural appetite

During school this week we’ve been learning about South America. The countries, the climate, the culture…the culinary delights! One of the best ways to learn about a culture is to eat their food. In all of our progress, we Americans have become quite wimpy in what we will and won’t eat. Tripe, anyone?

Fortunately for our South American cuisine we only ventured as far as chicken. Pollo a la brasa, rotisserie chicken, is a Peruvian specialty and little Pollo restaurants dot the Northern Virginia culinary scene along with all the other ethnic restaurants from name-your-ethnicity. All of these chicken joints have cute little names that set them apart: Pollo Loco, Pollo Rico, Pollo Inka and Pollo Real. The restaurant we visited was named Crisp & Juicy. Yep. Had we not looked it up on UrbanSpoon I don’t know if we would have taken it seriously. It has a 93% approval rating so we gave it a try.

And I am so glad we did. It was delicious. The chicken was to die for, and as the restaurant promises, it is crisp and juicy. We had yucca fries and sweet potatoes as sides. The yucca fries look and taste almost exactly like french fries, just a little bit denser. I don’t know if sweet potatoes are south american but the fried plantains were out so we substituted. And it was on their menu, so we know they at least know about sweet potatoes. This is not my picture:

img from ata08 on flickr

The girls and I had papaya juice (from the USA) and Du was brave enough to try “Inca Kola”.

Coca Cola has its fingers in many a country, including those in South America (if you’ve been to the Coca Cola museum in Atlanta you’ve had a chance to taste all the different Coke products!). Inca Kola tastes like carbonated bubble gum. Du says it tastes like Big Red, which apparently is a Coke product you can get in Texas. Yummy.

So we now know that if we ever visit Peru we will like the food. Even the girls chowed down.

No homeschool lesson would be complete without a field trip! I think we’ll head into DC this weekend to visit the statue of Simon Bolivar, the “George Washington” of South America (Bolivar was even a Freemason!), who helped liberate the continent from its Spanish conquerors.

P.S. After our South American dinner we headed to an Armenian cafe for dessert. Nowhere near South America, but it couldn’t have been a better end to the night. An Armenian dessert with a chai latte. MMMMM!!!

P.P.S. I noticed today that some peppers I bought at the store the other day are of Peruvian origin:

Will wonders never cease…