Easter Recap

Easter has always been a relatively low-key holiday for us.  We color some eggs, have a egg hunt or two, overdose on marshmallow Peeps (oh wait, that's just me) and look for some signs of spring.  This year was no exception.  We hung out in our pajamas for awhile, took some walks around the neighborhood, engaged in a cut-throat game of hide & seek and generally enjoyed being with each other.  

M. has been anticipating what the Easter Bunny would leave for weeks.  So much so that I had

to remind him that it wasn't like Christmas.  There would be a few candies, a toy or two, some colored eggs and that was it.  He said he knew that, but I was still a bit concerned that he'd be underwhelmed or disappointed.  I resisted the urge to buy more stuff.  (Eek, did I type that out loud?  Cover the eyes of any minor children who might be in the room while you're reading this!)  What I meant to say was we left a nice salad the night before which the Easter Bunny enjoyed tremendously before leaving the parent-approved amount of loot.  And everyone was happy.  

P. pretty much lives in the moment (as far as I can tell anyway) and was more than happy enjoying the Easter videos and books that we got out of storage a few weeks ago.  It's always a happy day when I get to reread The Country Bunny and the Little Gold 

Shoes by Dubose Heyward.  This is the first year that the boys enjoyed it too, rather than just suffering through my enthusiasm. They do like my other favorite, The Golden Egg Book by Margaret Wise Brown.  There's something about that mischevious little bunny pushing the egg with his foot that just speaks to the souls of little boys, you know?  And of course we had to watch It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown.  It's just not a holiday without Charlie Brown.  We're watching it again right now.

We colored eggs twice, once with regular food coloring and once with the usual

Paas egg dyes.  Much to my dismay, both times everything stayed really neat and clean and only one egg cracked (D. did it). Part of me misses the dyed hands, having to repeatedly say don't drink it!, multiple spills and eggs that end up brown inside and out because they have a billion cracks from being literally thrown in every single color.  The first year we dyed eggs the boys were both technicolor marvels and I worried it would never come off.  I'm surprised that I feel nostalgic for chaos.  But the fact that Superman X-Ray Vision Glasses were necessary for egg dying made me feel much better.  Call me crazy.  

We all hid plastic eggs in the house on Saturday and hunted for them Sunday morning.  We're still finding them, which explains why we don't use real eggs.  

7 Things About You at Age 7

• When you're not reading everything in sight, you're writing and illustrating your own stories.
  
• You still like to snuggle with a grownup and read chapter books together though.
  
• You just discoved Webkinz and all the online fun you can have with them.
  
• Chicken fingers are your new favorite food.
• You started karate and love it.
  
• You're very sensitive and empathetic and because of this, you've been visiting the school nurse a lot lately (mostly for reassurance).
  
• Art is still your favorite subject

• Woody from "Toy Story" is your almost constant companion (you have two of them).
• Lately you prefer to watch the outtakes from a movie rather than the movie itself.
• Your favorite book is "Too Many Toys" by David Shannon.
• Pasta is still your favorite meal, but now you'll eat mashed potatoes and gravy.
• Swimming is still your best thing.
• Cookie Monster makes you laugh really hard!  
• Ever since you saw "Ratatouille" you want to help cook dinner and read cookbooks.

R is for Respect

There are a lot of lovely words that begin with R: rain, radiant, read, reassure, recipe, reconcile, recycle, reflect, refuge, rejoice, relax, remember, rescue, resilience, reunion, reverie, revive, rhapsody, rhyme & romance.  

There are also a lot of ugly words that begin with R: racism, rage, rancid,  rat, reek, reject, renege, reprehensible, repress, repugnant,  revenge, ribald, ridicule, rigid, rotten, rubbish, rude & ruthless.

It's time to ban the ugliest R word from our vocabulary: retard.  

President Obama appeared on the Tonight Show this week and compared his bowling ability to the Special Olympics.  He apologized for the remark before the show aired and Special Olympics Chairman Timothy Shriver called it a teachable moment for the entire nation. Should the President have known better?  Sure.  Was he trying to be purposefully hurtful?  I don't think so (because those folks don't apologize).  Was he insensitive?  Sure. To me, it just shows how commonplace statements like this have become. The majority of people who use the word "retard" or "retarded" probably aren't even hearing the word when it comes out of their mouth, never mind connecting it to a real live person.  It's become a synonym for ignorant or doofus.  You hear this word every day, everywhere, from people of all ages. I'll admit that I used to say it when I was much younger and much much much stupider. I never gave a thought to what it really meant and I'm ashamed of that now.  It's a slur, plain and simple. And it hurts.  

It's also very inaccurate.  People with special needs are not retarded in their capacity and capability to love just like the rest of us. They are not retarded in their ability to learn, just like the rest of us.  They can function in the world and be productive members of their community, just like the rest of us.   However, people with intellectual disabilities and other special needs may not always be able to articulate their feelings. When they can't, it's up to us, the ones who love them, to say it.  It hurts everyone in our society when you use this word or otherwise treat them as 'less than.'  

From now on, let's use all the lovely R words more often.  Help eradicate one ugly one.  

Gee, Am I Really that Transparent?

D. thinks all this sorting and organizing is a thinly disguised attempt at avoiding finding a job.  Maybe a little, but it's more equal parts full-blown panic knowing that once I go back to work it'll never get done and plain old I've-had-enough-of-all-this-now.   I can't tell you how much better I slept last night because there were no piles of crap around the bed.  Sure, I should have had this revelation six months ago, but I procrastinate on everything, even revelations.  

Treasure Hunting

It must be cabin fever or maybe longing for spring, but I've been sorting, organizing and purging this month in a big way.  I've unpacked boxes that got shoved in various closets and piled in the basement when we moved into this house almost 5 years ago.  That would make me feel bad, but remember the part in The Incredibles where Helen tells Bob that it only took her 3 years to unpack the last box?  I'm not a superhero so I think that means I'm doing pretty well!  Part of me was a tad overwhelmed and thought, oh you haven't opened these boxes & bags in 4 years, just donate them all sight unseen.  But I had open them because there were things I'd been missing and worrying about, like:

• All my "good" jewelry (with the exception of my wedding band and gold bangle that was Nana Bertha's that I wear every day).  
• My flower girl dress from my sister G's wedding when I was six.  My sister K. sewed it to match all the other bridesmaid's dresses.  It's blue dotted swiss with net sleeves.  (Do they even still make dotted swiss?)  I LOVE LOVE LOVE this dress.  I'd like to shrink myself so I could wear it again.  The only childhood dress I loved more was my "rainbow dress" from when I was 7 but we didn't think to save that one.  I think I'm going to put it in a shadowbox or display it on my bedroom wall somehow.
• Ditto the little baggie of cloth diapers that came home with me from the hospital and the one decorated with pink ribbons that the nurses made for me to wear for the occasion.  There were no NICUs 45 years ago and these little diapers are a reminder of how much these ladies loved and cared for me for 3 months and how they wouldn't give in, especially after my twin Philip passed away.  These have to be displayed somewhere special.
• 2 boxes of checks.  I knew I ordered them! 
• 2 pairs of handmade gloves with fur trim and Athabascan beading.  A very dear friend made these for us when we lived in Holy Cross.  They're too nice to wear every day but I'm going to start wearing mine more often now that I've found them.  I also found some other beaded items that we got as gifts, some keychains, a credit card holder, some earrings.
• Video of the boys when they were very little.  I found 3 tapes earlier in the month but I knew we had taken lots more.  I found 5 other tapes today.  I haven't watched them yet but I'm guessing 4 of them are of them egging each other on in the Jolly Jumper and the Exersaucer.

And the treasure hunter in me was happy to find:

• 2 savings bonds
• $100 cash ($50 in each of 2 sealed envelopes with the boys names on them, no note or card or anything and it's not our handwriting.)  I opened a bank account with it and I think it'll be the start of our Disney fund.  (I know I should put it in the college fund but if we don't start saving the boys will be in college before we get there!)
  
• A bag of lightbulbs.  Considering that the kitchen light just burnt out and the drawer where we usually keep lightbulbs is empty, this is a good find.
  
• Some silhouettes that an artist handcut at a craft show when the boys were about a year old.  I totally forgot all about these.  Just looking at them brings back memories of that time.  I need a frame for these.  I'll probably find one in another box :-D
  
• My gargoyles.  I missed their ugly mugs.
• A new pair of pants that I bought at Target in... the receipt says April.  I have no memory of buying them, but they're rather nice and they still fit.

And then there was some stuff that was easy to donate or recycle:

• All the cards & ribbon bows from my baby shower.  I always had intentions of putting these in a scrapbook or something.   Oh well.  I've got lots more current things for the scrapbooks!  And I've still got the love, if not the cute little onesies and blankets.  Actually, we do still have some of those... remind me to post the photo of 6 yo M. wearing a 6 month size romper!
• All the miscellaneous bedding that didn't match or was for the wrong size bed.
• Lots of lots of crafts and stitching supplies.  I could probably get rid of a lot more but I didn't want the "now we can go and get more" instinct to kick in.
• My collection of perfume bottles and little china boxes.  They're pretty but they're just not me anymore, you know?
• Many years of Family Fun magazine.  Everything is online now anyway.  Ditto for all the other magazines I used to keep.  I kept the Simple Scrapbooks only because I do refer to them and they're going out of print.
• A bunch of books I've finally admited I will never read again.  This was not as hard as it used to be.
• Many plastic bags and other flotsam.  Apparently I packed our garbage.

Tropical Bird Massacre

Feather boas make good reins when you're playing all the variations of horse race.  I only hope the vacuum cleaner can handle the aftermath.

You'd Think I'd Know Better

I made the mistake of mentioning to D. that "gee, no one has been sick all winter!" 

Now the germs have decided to hold their annual convention here instead of in Tahiti.