Patience

My dad was a minister. He once told me that every time he prayed for patience, something bad would happen. He eventually reached the conclusion that God would send him tribulation in order to teach him patience.

Now, whenever we have a trying time, my husband jokes that I was secretly praying for patience. Needless to say, this is one of those times.

Little G. has decided that 15 minute power naps are the way to go. He is Super Baby - impervious to the effects of the infant swing, which puts mere mortal babies into a deep soporific state. It seems that the only way to get him to take a longer nap is to go for a car ride. Of course, when I'm driving the baby in the car to get him to sleep, all of those little things like laundry, dirty dishes, dusting, and clutter-busting don't get done. Let's not even mention the cost of keeping gas in the tank. Lately the way I've been keeping the family in clean clothes is to put a load in at bedtime and then getting up around 5:00 a.m. to put it in the dryer. This way the clothes are dry and unwrinkled for school/work. Of course if the power happens to go out, I'll be sunk.

So here's the deal: God, if you're listening, I don't need any more patience at the moment. ;)

The Internet Is Forever

I've been reading over some other blogs on the Internet, and it never ceases to amaze me how little privacy people afford their children when writing about them. I've chosen to use initials when talking about my kids. I also am careful about what I write about them. Once you put something on the net, it's there. You can take it down, but there's no telling how many people have passed it on before you decided to remove it.

Since my oldest daughter has a form of autism known as Asperger's Disorder, I read a lot of autism blogs. I just can't believe how freely people write about the intimate details of their kids' meltdowns, problems with toilet training older kids, and other very private things. So many people make no effort to hide their names or the names of their kids. I do post on some private boards, but even then I try to protect my daughter's privacy while trying to help others or trying to find help with some of the difficulties of having an autistic child.

I think people don't think about what's going to happen to their kid when they hit middle or high school and somebody Google's their name. Can you imagine how you would have felt in middle school if someone in your class found out that your parent wrote about what a giant pain you were at four and how they couldn't stand you? Or if you found out that when you were five your mom wrote all about your incontinence or nosepicking? Kids in school can be very cruel, and I think a lot of us moms with the best of intentions are giving future bullies tons of fodder.

Remember moms, the Internet is forever.

Enviro Rant

Okay, I've been fed up with the politicization of the environment for a long time, but now they're just going too far. Throwing environmental preaching into football, interviewing 5 year olds about what they're doing for the environment - it's just too much!

Unfortunately, so many sheeple (sheep + people for those who think it's a typo) have bought into the global warming mindset it's mind boggling. I can understand how so many under the age of 35 have bought into it, but those of us old enough to remember the 1970s should be laughing in hysterics at Al Gore, Paul Erlich, and their ilk. We should also be teaching those younger than us who have no historic perspective, and who have been indoctrinated by an increasingly failing public school system.

I was just a kid back in the 70s, but I can remember all the hysteria over the coming Ice Age. Yes, that's right, just 30 short years ago scientists and the news media were predicting another Ice Age, and I'm not talking about the movie. Newsweek Magazine featured articles about it and even had it on the cover of an issue. NOVA, the PBS science show, covered it. I can even remember an episode of Barney Miller, where it was brought up during the show. (I don't watch Barney Miller re-runs, but I'm sure they probably never play that one.)

Here's the dirty little secret: the air quality during the 1970s was horrible. We only had the big 3 networks back then, and California air quality was always featured on them during the evening news, because the smog was so bad, much worse than it is today. Pittsburgh during the 70s was practically enveloped in a black, sooty cloud. During the summertime in Washington, DC the area was constantly hazy. We drove cars with fully leaded gasoline. Unleaded gas could still be found right up until the very end of the 1980s. The former U.S.S.R., China, and India were huge polluters. China and India still are. I suspect that Russia still is, but I can't state that one unequivocally. Believe me when I say the carbon footprint 30 years ago, when it was much colder, was much larger than it is today. If history guides us, then logically we should want more pollution to cool us down. For those who don't get that last statement, I'm being facetious. I don't want dirty air or water any more than the next person.

The simple fact of the matter is that earth's temperatures are cyclical in nature. The earth has had warming and cooling periods over the millennia. Historically, all of mankind's great advancement has come during warming periods, and it's declines have been during the cooling periods. For example, the Dark Ages were during a cooling period.

I would really appreciate it if you would just leave us in peace to watch our football games and not preach to us about the environment. Leave our 5 year olds alone. We don't need to scare 5 year olds about the environment. Let them have their innocence and just enjoy being 5. They'll have enough to worry about once they're grown, and they'll grow up soon enough!

The Dinner Table

Thanks to the time change screwing up the baby's schedule, such as it is, we had one of those rare dinners where the baby was asleep. I was actually able to sit at the dinner table like a normal person without the baby attached.

Other than the fact that I was sitting in my chair without the baby in my arms, it was a fairly typical dinner. S. F. was sitting at the table dissecting a pea instead of eating it. S. D. was being a typical 4 year old, not eating the chicken-a-la-king that a couple of weeks ago she would have gobbled up in seconds. G. and I were trying to get S. D. to use her inside voice at the table. Little G. is an incredibly light sleeper, and G. and I were hoping for us to get through the meal without his waking up.

Of course S. D. was having none of the inside voice thing. She's a very joyous child, and for whatever reason, last night she was especially so. Perhaps she was picking up on our good mood because the Redskins barely eked out a win. Whatever it was, no matter how many times we asked her to turn down the volume, 10 seconds later she was back to using her loud, happy voice instead of the quiet one. Finally G. had had it, and he really scolded her. She immediately ducked down under the table. We decided to ignore her and went on with the rest of our dinner. After a minute or two she peeked out from the table, looked in her dad's direction, realized the coast was clear, smiled impishly and said, "Whew!" That did it. We all broke up, and of course she did several encores of her, "Whew!" which sent us all into peals of laughter. Amazingly the baby slept through it all for once.

Of course tonight when the baby was wide awake, she did a great job of using her inside voice. ;p