Naked Time!

I have a seven year-old who loves to be naked.  She revels in her nude physique.  There is nothing she loves to do more than strip down to nothing and prance around the house, hands on hips with head held high.  She admires her glorious nudity in the living room mirror, much to her brother's horrified chagrin.

Her lack of modesty clashes head-on with Jacob's aversion to anything private being displayed publicly.  He believes that naked bodies belong behind closed doors and people should pretend to never have biological needs that require them to visit the restroom.  So, I've had to institute naked time rules.  Sarah's allowed to enjoy as much naked time as she likes, so long as she confines her nudity to her bedroom or the bathroom (with the door closed, sweetie.  Keeping the door wide open isn't really having alone naked time).

I can't help admiring her pure and simple joy with her own body, though.  Sure, I don't want her to just drop trou at the shopping mall and announce to various and sundry that she's naked.  But, too soon she'll be overly concerned with her body.  Too soon, she'll stare into the mirror with a critical eye, instead of an eye pleased with its object.  Too soon girls seem to add words like diet, fat, and waistline to their vocabulary.  I want her to love her body for as long as humanly possibly.

Even at her tender age, Sarah sees herself as something as an odd-ball.  She feels alien, this blonde petite pixie living in a house full of lumbering brunette giants.  She wonders why she's tiny when the rest of us are tall.  She has no understanding that people with my color hair long for her flaxen locks.  She just sees herself as different.  Even her mind seems to work differently from ours.  The rest of us walk from one point to the next.  Sarah would rather twirl. 

I'm a mom, and its my job to worry.  I hope she never develops a hatred for her body.  I can't stand the thought of her looking in the mirror and seeing someone who's too short, lacking here, too much of something there.  I don't want her to see curly hair and long for straight (or vice-versa.  So far it looks like she's inherited my wavy hair).  I would hate for her to practice different smiles for hours, trying to find one that looks natural but feels manufactured.  Enjoy your body now, my naked lithe pixie.  You are beautiful because God made you to be beautiful.  I wish for you the blessing of knowing how beautiful you truly are, but appreciating the fact that your outer beauty is just one facet of what makes you beautiful.

Uno, Recycling, Super Mario and other Child-Induced Headaches

I started this blog with the intention of not opening it up to many people I knew in real life. That way, I could talk smack about people who were irritating me, and I wouldn't have to bother defending myself or worrying about hurting anyone's feelings. Also, I wanted freedom to vent about the aggravation of being a stay-at-home mom without a lot of judgement or people calling me out for not having any real problems. As it turns out, I don't really have a lot of mean things to say about anyone. And, I don't really care if people have poor opinions about my parenting skills. Who knew? So, I didn't write too often. Now, I'm just going to go ahead and anounce to all of my facebook friends that I have a blog. So, if that's how you found my blog, thanks for stopping by. I'll try to be nice.

All Jacob wants to do all of the time is play Super Mario Bros. When he isn't playing Super Mario Bros, he's looking for youtube videos starring Super Mario Bros, watching the Super Mario Bros Super Show on Netflix, or talking--incessantly--about Super Mario Bros. When I am so exhasted with the subject that I threaten to put the Wii in the dishwasher (a little trick I learned from the Simpsons), he will then talk about Sonic the Hedgehog or Link from The Legend of Zelda. What happened to playing outside in the summer? When I was a kid, my parents weren't responsible for entertaining me all summer long. I know it's hot outside, but we have popsicles, a water hose, and ice cold lemonade. Go play in the yard!

Please share with me your kids' ages and what (if any) chores they are responsible for. Jacob had to gather all of the dirty laundry today so I could wash it. He really resents that I don't carry my own laundry basket to the laundry room. But, my back is always sore, and I do all the washing, drying, and folding. I don't think it's too much to ask for him to carry the dirty clothes for me. Other than this chore, taking out the garbage, and cleaning up after themselves, my kids do very little. If my back is really bothering me, I make them put away their plastic dishes because I don't want to bend down to put them in the bottom cupboard. They clean their rooms once in a while.

Sarah can't carry the trashbags, so she's the official recycler. I forgot to put the trash cans out at the curb last night. At seven this morning, I heard the recycling truck, jumped out of bed, and ran outside. I was too late for the recycling, but at least I got the trash to the curb plenty early. But, now I had two full recycling bins and a week to go before the recycling truck comes around again. So, bad mommy that I am, I gave Sarah a garbage bag and instructed her to bag up all the recycling and leave it for the trash truck. She was furious with me. She actually said, "We didn't miss the recycling truck, Mom. YOU missed the recycling truck!" There were many more words screeched at such a high decibel that only the dog could really understand what she was saying. But I got the gist that I was destroying the earth and making her a party to my miscreance. She cried the entire time that I forced her to stand on the front lawn and commit such an evil deed.

On a lighter note, Chuck and I are teaching the kids to play Uno. I can't think of too many games that are so simple and still fun for adults. Although, Pass the Pigs is pretty fun, too. Maybe I'll start looking for that game if it still exists. Anyway, they're picking Uno up pretty fast, and are being pretty good sports when they lose. It's mostly just chance, and very little skill. So, they can't get too exasperated.

It's only half-way through June, but I feel like summer is slipping by. We should be at the beach or on picnics. But, wildfires are burning all over the county, so the air is thick and smoky. I guess that means the kids will be sitting around the house playing Super Mario Bros for a few more days.

Oh, hi there little blog...

I guess I've abandoned you for so very long. Were you very lonely and sad? All the other blogs get their blogger's attention, but not little old you. Don't take it personally. It's just easier to tweet or update my facebook status than to go into long arduous blogging about my life. Because, you know what? My life just isn't really all that interesting to most folks.

But, anyway...I deleted a bunch of boring old posts or posts from some times in my life that I'd rather not revisit. I think I'll start over almost fresh. I saved a few posts that I liked, but the rest are trashed.

Maybe I'll start blogging again, okay?