Illiterate and Proud of It

On Saturday, my husband and I took our two oldest kids to a Disney on Ice show. Besides realizing about ten minutes in to the show that this was a total waste of money, we understood the extent to which our kids are pop culture illiterate. While the little girl next to me was singing along with all the cartoon characters, my children were more consumed by the mechanical side of things:

"Mom, is the fog real?"

"Mom, are the cars real?"

"Is there anyone behind the wheel?"

My favorite, said by my three year old son when he saw Ariel for the first time:

"I don't like that lady. Why couldn't she put on some clothes?"


Half of the show was about Tinkerbell finding a purpose for her existence in the fairyland. The purpose of life was found when she first messed up the garden and then fixed it with one turn of some wheel. I was looking for food for thought or a moral lesson, or setting of example, but failed to see one. Magic, fairies, spells, witches were there and made me quite uncomfortable. You can debate with me that fantasy and imagination is crucial for child's development and that all of the things above are just FUN, but there is something inside of me that calls to guard my children from it. I d0n't see a lot of tolerance for witchcraft in Christianity.

I was happy to answer my children's questions about who it is they were watching and what was going on. It didn't bother me at all that my children weren't literate in the world of Disney. In fact, I was pretty proud of that fact. In our house hours of television and movies are substituted by pretend play and imagination that comes from within their little brains. I was proud because the tube is rarely on because of my children's desires to do other things not because I control it so and the small collection of Disney movies is collecting dust. I was proud because their vocabulary and knowledge not of pop culture but of letters, numbers, kid songs, juvenile science and geography concepts sets them apart from other kids their age.

I am proud to be raising pop culture illiterate nerds. There are so very few of us left.

Swine Flu Song

Those of you who are familiar with Billy Joel's "We didn't start the fire" song will get a special kick out of this one.

Summer, Come Baaaaack!

For being able to pretend for a few months that I am a stay at home mom, for dressing kids in one level of clothes, for yummy berries, for splash pads and parks, for hanging out on the deck, and for......yard sales---I miss summer!!!

Lets talk about yard sales, shall we? Why do I miss them? Because I am a new convert to yard sales who has had a blast and great luck this summer. I got many many deals including a fine china set for 8 (that's for over 30 pieces!) in excellent shape for $8. I grabbed it the same second the lady named the price and tried very hard not to expose my grin. I also got my baby a Jeep sports stroller in great shape for $35. My most recent purchases are a must brag. I got this 3-pack set of children's songs in excellent condition for

for $.25. Yes, a quarter. Its currently selling for $12 on amazon.

Also, by some weird luck from a very weird lady, I bought these Russian classic cartoons



for $.50. Two quarters!

Last, but my most valuable purchase yet, I bought a beautiful five strand freshwater rice pearl necklace and bracelet that looks similar to this (substitute the big pearl clip to 14k gold)



for...are you ready for this--$1. Goodwill, can you beat this?

I bought it from the same weird lady who sold me the Russian cartoona who was very tired and over medicated to realize she is selling me something genuine. She was selling a lot of things that were not hers and this set was clipped together as one long necklace with clips at weird places. thinking there was something wrong with the necklace she offered it to me for a dollar.

So yes, second hand stores riding on the recession wave have gotten way to expensive and I have officially changed my allegiance for fun shopping to yard sales. For now though, I am to start collecting junk around the house for the yard sale I will have next summer, and who knows someone might just a find a treasure or two in my trash.

Slow Dance

Alyssa has posted this on her site and it really spoke to me. My goal for the next 85 years of my life...to slow down.

"SLOW DANCE"

Have you ever watched kids

On a merry-go-round?

Or listened to the rain

Slapping on the ground?

Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight?

Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?


You better slow down.

Don't dance so fast.

Time is short.

The music won't last.

Do you run through each day

On the fly?

When you ask How are you?

Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done

Do you lie in your bed

With the next hundred chores

Running through your head?


You'd better slow down


Don't dance so fast.


Time is short.


The music won't last.


Ever told your child,

We'll do it tomorrow?

And in your haste,

Not see his sorrow?


Ever lost touch,

Let a good friendship die

Cause you never had time

To call and say,"Hi"


You'd better slow down.


Don't dance so fast.


Time is short.


The music won't last.


When you run so fast to get somewhere

You miss half the fun of getting there.

When you worry and hurry through your day,

It is like an unopened gift....


Thrown away.


Life is not a race.


Do take it slower


Hear the music


Before the song is over.

Creepy Ads

One of the blogs I read regularly posted a link to this site of vintage creepy ads. My favorite, the one above (click on it to read the print) is an ad for Lysol to be used for better female hygiene. I laugh every time I look at it. I cannot believe the marketing team was able to get away with it. Some other ads are disturbing and funny like these,





here and here for many more. Heather, I have a feeling you are going to like these!

Please Pray...

I just learned the news that a friend of ours had passed away, loosing her battle with cancer as well. She had battled it for the last three years, learning of its existence only a couple months after her wedding day. Please pray for the family who lost their only sister, daughter, princess.

Mortality

A few weeks ago, I went to a funeral service for a very dear acquaintance of mine whom I liked and respected a lot. I met her at an job interview for my first real job, working as a tutor at the high school I graduated from. She had enough faith in me, a then eighteen year old recent high school graduate to trust me with a new position where I managed my time and assignment without much supervision. I liked and admired a lot of things about her. Her classic appearance and her classy demeanor, her ways of showing courtesy and care, her optimism, her professionalism and ability to lead, and most of all, I respected her for being so grounded and for cherishing relationships. You see, for the last five years she held a very high position of an HR director at one of the biggest districts around here. Her office was always open for people to swing by and say high. She did not become a snob. She was always very accessible for people to come in and have a chat with her. She took the time out of her busy schedule to do things like attend weddings of very small people like my sister and I and write notes of encouragement and congratulations to many. She died after loosing a long battle with breast cancer. She was 52 years of old, shy a couple of years for retirement. She definitely left too early.

As I was listening to family, friends and colleagues speak at her funeral service, my respect and love for her only strengthened. I kept looking at an enlarged picture of her in disbelief that this person will no longer walk the halls of the district office, spend time with her children, or kiss the love of her life. She will not be able to enjoy retirement that have been beefed up with savings from the last 28 years of working in education. Her humor will no longer amuse and comfort her loved ones.

Mortality. What a strange concept. How is it possible for a person to one day plan, think, create, love, care, sympathize, and not exist the next?

This funeral service came about a week after my side of the family got together at my elderly grandparents' house to take group pictures. My grandfather is 95 and my grandmother is 87. They have been married for over sixty years. Their bodies and minds are fragile and they spend their days walking or sitting around my aunts house. I was thinking of them during the funeral service. My grandparents have definitely reached the end of their lives here on Earth. Having lived such long lives, mortality seems suiting, natural, if not desirable. As I write this, they have lived a month longer than my friend and continue to live. They, who have nothing more to offer to the society, or their families and who are so limited in their physical and mental abilities to even get to a nearby park.

Why do some die before their time and others continue to live is a question only God can answer. But the reality of mortality only strengthens my believe in the eternal life that must follow after our flesh can no longer sustain us here, on Earth. I hope and pray, that this time comes after I have lived to the fullest, watched my great grandchildren serve the Lord, made a difference or two in someone's life, brought someone to Christ and am able to then command those that survive me to throw a big party in honor of my life and departure.