When I set my original goal of blogging every day in November, I didn't know that the boys would be scheduled for ear tube surgery at the end of the month. Yipes, that's coming up tomorrow morning for all four ears! So this is going to be my final post for NaBloPoMo. Taking care of the kids will occupy my time quite fully the next few days. At least, if surgery proceeds as scheduled. Despite me basically quarantining them since Monday, they both came down with colds yesterday. Gibson was up most of last night for reasons only he knows (I suspect another ear infection).
I hope y'all have enjoyed reading along with my reflections on life this month. I will continue to post from time to time as the fancy strikes!
Sunday, November 27, 2016
Saturday, November 26, 2016
Motherhood: the Highlights
Another topic suggested by my mother today - she wants to know what I enjoy about motherhood. Why do I suspect she put forth this theme so she can comment on my FB page with everything she enjoys about being a mom/grandma? Ha ha, just kidding...sort of ;)
Frequent readers may have noticed I have an affinity for anxiety. A penchant for paranoia. I wallow in worry. You get the point - at times, it's challenging for me to turn off my whirring, neurotic brain and just be happy in the moment. Plus, being a mom of twins is so intense! Everything is happening x2, so even when one kid is having a good day, the other one might be flailing around on the floor for some unknown reason. But we do have our good moments. I shall try to focus on them!
Having a front-row seat to human development. The last baby I spent a significant amount of time with was my brother who's 13 years younger than me, but he's all grown up now. So yeah, it's been awhile; I'd forgotten a lot of baby stuff since his newborn days. It is kind of amazing how quickly babies grow, develop, and learn new things. I look back at photos/videos/blogs of Gus and Gibson from last year, and wow, they have changed so much! (I'm sorry, I know it's a cliche; I don't know how else to say it...) I mean, they used to need me to do literally everything for them. Now they're feeding themselves, helping pick up their toys, and walking around the house. Lately they've gotten really good at following directions, such as "we need to change your diaper - go to your bedroom." Whoa! How did that happen?? I just said the same things to them over and over, and one day their brains were able to interpret the meaning of the words. Isn't that cool?
I also like to watch them figure stuff out, like how to open/close things, find hidden items, escape from under a chair where they thought they were trapped... You can see the little wheels in their head turning!
Laughter. The boys tend to be pretty happy, overall. They love to laugh, giggle, and squeal with joy. One of my favorites is when they make each other laugh. This will often happen when they're sitting in their high chairs. One twin will do something funny, like tap himself on the head with a cracker. The other one will laugh and follow suit. Then they're both sitting there, smashing crackers in their hair and giggling uproariously. It's pretty cute :)
Hope for the future. This one's a bit more abstract, but especially in the midst of political discontent in the US, I find that my kids provide me with something concrete to focus on. Though I personally have little power to impact national election trends, I have a huge amount of influence on my two little boys. By the way I love and care for them, I can teach them to be kind, think deeply, solve problems, and demonstrate empathy. And I know lots of other parents who want the same for their children. So it gives me hope that positive change is possible, even if it's small and incremental. The revolution begins at home.
Frequent readers may have noticed I have an affinity for anxiety. A penchant for paranoia. I wallow in worry. You get the point - at times, it's challenging for me to turn off my whirring, neurotic brain and just be happy in the moment. Plus, being a mom of twins is so intense! Everything is happening x2, so even when one kid is having a good day, the other one might be flailing around on the floor for some unknown reason. But we do have our good moments. I shall try to focus on them!
Having a front-row seat to human development. The last baby I spent a significant amount of time with was my brother who's 13 years younger than me, but he's all grown up now. So yeah, it's been awhile; I'd forgotten a lot of baby stuff since his newborn days. It is kind of amazing how quickly babies grow, develop, and learn new things. I look back at photos/videos/blogs of Gus and Gibson from last year, and wow, they have changed so much! (I'm sorry, I know it's a cliche; I don't know how else to say it...) I mean, they used to need me to do literally everything for them. Now they're feeding themselves, helping pick up their toys, and walking around the house. Lately they've gotten really good at following directions, such as "we need to change your diaper - go to your bedroom." Whoa! How did that happen?? I just said the same things to them over and over, and one day their brains were able to interpret the meaning of the words. Isn't that cool?
I also like to watch them figure stuff out, like how to open/close things, find hidden items, escape from under a chair where they thought they were trapped... You can see the little wheels in their head turning!
Laughter. The boys tend to be pretty happy, overall. They love to laugh, giggle, and squeal with joy. One of my favorites is when they make each other laugh. This will often happen when they're sitting in their high chairs. One twin will do something funny, like tap himself on the head with a cracker. The other one will laugh and follow suit. Then they're both sitting there, smashing crackers in their hair and giggling uproariously. It's pretty cute :)
Hope for the future. This one's a bit more abstract, but especially in the midst of political discontent in the US, I find that my kids provide me with something concrete to focus on. Though I personally have little power to impact national election trends, I have a huge amount of influence on my two little boys. By the way I love and care for them, I can teach them to be kind, think deeply, solve problems, and demonstrate empathy. And I know lots of other parents who want the same for their children. So it gives me hope that positive change is possible, even if it's small and incremental. The revolution begins at home.
Friday, November 25, 2016
Post-Thanksgiving Lull
My brain isn't working today. I didn't get enough sleep last night - I think the boys wanted me to take them Black Friday shopping or something from the way they kept squawking in their cribs. So instead of trying to string sentences together, I tried to take a short video of leaves falling from the tree in our front yard. But now I can't get it to upload, so just imagine yellow leaves falling on top of other leaves already on the grass. Thrilling!! Does it make it more dramatic if I tell you I was holding Gus while filming, because he refused to take a nap this afternoon?
Here's a random picture of leaves in the neighborhood, just so I don't leaf you hanging...
Here's a random picture of leaves in the neighborhood, just so I don't leaf you hanging...
Thursday, November 24, 2016
Thanksgiving Dinner
It's my first year to cook a full Thanksgiving dinner! How maternal of me to do it now, ha ha. We're having a cozy family celebration with just the four of us today. I tried to plan a meal the kids could eat. And I'm not making anything too fancy because, well, we aren't that fancy :)
I was hoping the kids would just take one long nap today because that would work best with the original eating and Skyping schedule. But they haven't been interested in doing that for the last couple days, plus my timeline just got pushed back due to turkey troubles. So we shall see what the day holds!
Complications so far:
You can check out my meal prep spreadsheet here. I wanted to be sure I remembered everything! As you can see, we like our carbs :) Everything will be dairy-free except for the Stovetop stuffing, made with butter because ewww margarine.
Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers! May your turkeys be tasty and your celebrating be festive.
I was hoping the kids would just take one long nap today because that would work best with the original eating and Skyping schedule. But they haven't been interested in doing that for the last couple days, plus my timeline just got pushed back due to turkey troubles. So we shall see what the day holds!
Complications so far:
- 1 finger tip burned when removing pie from oven, even when wearing an oven mitt
- 1 turkey not defrosted on time. I followed the Butterball recommendation of 2.5 days of thawing for a 10lb turkey. Actually, it was in the fridge for almost 3 days, but it was still half-frozen this morning! This turkey is Kroger-brand, not Butterball. Does Kroger freeze their turkeys extra solid or something??
You can check out my meal prep spreadsheet here. I wanted to be sure I remembered everything! As you can see, we like our carbs :) Everything will be dairy-free except for the Stovetop stuffing, made with butter because ewww margarine.
Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers! May your turkeys be tasty and your celebrating be festive.
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Southern Humor
This post is a little tricky to write, but I'm going to give it a try. As usual, I'm wary of generalizing my limited observations to the larger population. The examples I cite below were spoken by white men at church who are older than me.
Southerners are funny. I mean that as a compliment :) They like to laugh, joke, and have a good time. It's hard to put a finger on the Southern style of humor exactly. I'd venture to say it often relies on self-deprecation, more so than other places I've lived.
Why, just the other day, I was introduced to a gentleman who was probably in his 70s. We were exchanging pleasantries. I asked if he was originally from Memphis. He replied, "No, but I've lived here so long it melted all my hair off!" (He's bald.) Ha ha! Ok, sort of classic "old man" humor there, but see how he managed to make a joke at his own expense and also incorporate Memphis's hot, humid weather? That seems really Southern to me.
Here's another common punchline: Alabama. As in, the state, and that people from Alabama aren't very smart. There are two styles of joke.
Alabamian speaking: It was a serendipitous meeting. <pause> Serendipitous, did I say that right? You know I'm from Alabama.
-or-
Alabamian speaking: It was a serendipitous meeting. <pause> That's right, I said serendipitous. You didn't think people from Alabama knew any 5 syllable words, did you?
Southerners are funny. I mean that as a compliment :) They like to laugh, joke, and have a good time. It's hard to put a finger on the Southern style of humor exactly. I'd venture to say it often relies on self-deprecation, more so than other places I've lived.
Why, just the other day, I was introduced to a gentleman who was probably in his 70s. We were exchanging pleasantries. I asked if he was originally from Memphis. He replied, "No, but I've lived here so long it melted all my hair off!" (He's bald.) Ha ha! Ok, sort of classic "old man" humor there, but see how he managed to make a joke at his own expense and also incorporate Memphis's hot, humid weather? That seems really Southern to me.
Here's another common punchline: Alabama. As in, the state, and that people from Alabama aren't very smart. There are two styles of joke.
Alabamian speaking: It was a serendipitous meeting. <pause> Serendipitous, did I say that right? You know I'm from Alabama.
-or-
Alabamian speaking: It was a serendipitous meeting. <pause> That's right, I said serendipitous. You didn't think people from Alabama knew any 5 syllable words, did you?
In the first one, it's straight self-deprecation. The second example is more nuanced because the speaker is inserting himself into the listener's internal monologue, imagining s/he holds some stereotypical views about people from Alabama. Either way, they both elicit a chuckle :)
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
The Election
I've kept quiet about the election results on my blog because I was still processing everything. It was, to put it mildly, a different election than we're used to. So I took some time to ponder, reflect, and read what others were saying. I don't like to stir up controversy; I'm very aware that my readership spans the political spectrum. I write about my opinions today in part to help myself remember later on what I was thinking about in November 2016.
I'm no political scientist. One of the most challenging courses I took in grad school was in the PolSci department. But let me just offer a few observations.
I am scratching my head over the primary nominating process of the major parties that allowed Clinton and Trump to emerge as the nominees. They both had such strong unfavorable ratings. I haven't been voting all that long, but I can't recall another election where both candidates were so...hated.
On the Democratic side, I really think they underestimated the intense, seething disgust that people outside their inner circle felt for Hillary Clinton. I think it was hard for her to win over undecided voters because almost everyone already had a gut-level opinion about her.
For the Republicans, at first I thought Trump was just running as a joke, or to boost his reality TV ratings or something. In a really crowded Republican field, he was able to differentiate himself early on by saying outrageous things. I wonder if people who voted for him in the primary really liked him, or if they just thought it was funny to vote for him. Maybe they wanted to see how far the rabbit hole would go. But I'm still surprised he got the nomination because he's really not much of a Republican.
In hindsight, if you ask me, the Democrats should have nominated Bernie Sanders. I can't tell you how that would have actually happened with the DNC thwarting his campaign behind the scenes, but what the election results show is that people wanted a change, not a 3rd term of Obama. I bet that voters who chose Trump for economic reasons would've been open to considering Sanders as well. Sanders wasn't as well-known before the election, so he would've had a lot lower negative rating to start with. It might have been a more substantive campaign if Sanders were the nominee. Plus, let's be honest, I liked a lot of his policy proposals!
I'm not sure who the Republicans should've nominated. It seems like a lot of Republicans disavowed Trump during the campaign, but now that he won, maybe they are happy to be in control of both chambers of Congress + the White House. I had imagined they would nominate Jeb Bush or someone kind of boring/safe like that. I guess the Republicans knew that the Democrats would nominate Clinton, so they needed to pick someone who could beat her. Oh yeah, Kasich, I forgot about him. He seemed pretty normal. Too bad he was up against bombast and Twitter-speak.
I seriously have a hard time comprehending how the religious right embraced Trump. I was a teenager during the Bill Clinton sex scandal. I recall quite clearly evangelical leaders turning apoplectic at his behavior with Monica Lewinsky. They tossed about terms like "family values," "think of the children," "role model," "disgrace," etc. But now, 20 years later, some of those same people said, oh yeah, I'm totally supporting a thrice-married casino owner who brags about his sexual conquests...what in the heck? Are we living in the Twilight Zone now where wrong is right and up is down and orange is the new black?
As to why Trump beat Clinton, that's already been analyzed to death. I have nothing new to add. I'm disappointed in my country and the collective forces that allowed someone as unqualified as Donald Trump to ascend to the highest office in the land. But I'm not giving in to hand-wringing. Two days after the election, I drove over to the nonprofit where I teach English to refugees and immigrants. We all sat around a table together and practiced pronouncing words with "TH" sounds, like Thursday and thank you. We worked on numbers. We learned "there is one book/there are three pencils." And we did so in an environment of mutual respect and care for each other.
In my own small way, I continue to subvert the dominant paradigm.
I'm no political scientist. One of the most challenging courses I took in grad school was in the PolSci department. But let me just offer a few observations.
I am scratching my head over the primary nominating process of the major parties that allowed Clinton and Trump to emerge as the nominees. They both had such strong unfavorable ratings. I haven't been voting all that long, but I can't recall another election where both candidates were so...hated.
On the Democratic side, I really think they underestimated the intense, seething disgust that people outside their inner circle felt for Hillary Clinton. I think it was hard for her to win over undecided voters because almost everyone already had a gut-level opinion about her.
For the Republicans, at first I thought Trump was just running as a joke, or to boost his reality TV ratings or something. In a really crowded Republican field, he was able to differentiate himself early on by saying outrageous things. I wonder if people who voted for him in the primary really liked him, or if they just thought it was funny to vote for him. Maybe they wanted to see how far the rabbit hole would go. But I'm still surprised he got the nomination because he's really not much of a Republican.
In hindsight, if you ask me, the Democrats should have nominated Bernie Sanders. I can't tell you how that would have actually happened with the DNC thwarting his campaign behind the scenes, but what the election results show is that people wanted a change, not a 3rd term of Obama. I bet that voters who chose Trump for economic reasons would've been open to considering Sanders as well. Sanders wasn't as well-known before the election, so he would've had a lot lower negative rating to start with. It might have been a more substantive campaign if Sanders were the nominee. Plus, let's be honest, I liked a lot of his policy proposals!
I'm not sure who the Republicans should've nominated. It seems like a lot of Republicans disavowed Trump during the campaign, but now that he won, maybe they are happy to be in control of both chambers of Congress + the White House. I had imagined they would nominate Jeb Bush or someone kind of boring/safe like that. I guess the Republicans knew that the Democrats would nominate Clinton, so they needed to pick someone who could beat her. Oh yeah, Kasich, I forgot about him. He seemed pretty normal. Too bad he was up against bombast and Twitter-speak.
I seriously have a hard time comprehending how the religious right embraced Trump. I was a teenager during the Bill Clinton sex scandal. I recall quite clearly evangelical leaders turning apoplectic at his behavior with Monica Lewinsky. They tossed about terms like "family values," "think of the children," "role model," "disgrace," etc. But now, 20 years later, some of those same people said, oh yeah, I'm totally supporting a thrice-married casino owner who brags about his sexual conquests...what in the heck? Are we living in the Twilight Zone now where wrong is right and up is down and orange is the new black?
As to why Trump beat Clinton, that's already been analyzed to death. I have nothing new to add. I'm disappointed in my country and the collective forces that allowed someone as unqualified as Donald Trump to ascend to the highest office in the land. But I'm not giving in to hand-wringing. Two days after the election, I drove over to the nonprofit where I teach English to refugees and immigrants. We all sat around a table together and practiced pronouncing words with "TH" sounds, like Thursday and thank you. We worked on numbers. We learned "there is one book/there are three pencils." And we did so in an environment of mutual respect and care for each other.
In my own small way, I continue to subvert the dominant paradigm.
Monday, November 21, 2016
Sideways
It's time for more Southern idioms! Try to guess what this one means.
They really got sideways for awhile.
Were these people...?
A) lost
B) disagreeing
C) having sex
The correct answer, based on my observations so far, is B! (I mean, C might could also be applicable, but I'm talking about polite conversation here.)
I can't find any websites to corroborate my interpretation, so I hope it's right. I keep hearing the expression "sideways" used in context of two people who are in conflict about something.
Example: Friend A notices that Friend B has been drinking a lot lately, more than usual, and worries B might be an alcoholic. A tries to talk to B about her concerns. B doesn't want to listen and yells at A to leave her alone. A and B don't have any contact for awhile. Then B acknowledges she has a drinking problem and apologizes to A for the fight. So during that period of time where they weren't speaking to each other, they were "sideways."
Southerners, is my interpretation in the ballpark here?
I can't think of a similar expression in my Northwestern vocabulary; I'd just say something like "we were fighting" or "we weren't speaking to each other." I like sideways because it makes the disagreement sound more poetic :)
They really got sideways for awhile.
Were these people...?
A) lost
B) disagreeing
C) having sex
The correct answer, based on my observations so far, is B! (I mean, C might could also be applicable, but I'm talking about polite conversation here.)
I can't find any websites to corroborate my interpretation, so I hope it's right. I keep hearing the expression "sideways" used in context of two people who are in conflict about something.
Example: Friend A notices that Friend B has been drinking a lot lately, more than usual, and worries B might be an alcoholic. A tries to talk to B about her concerns. B doesn't want to listen and yells at A to leave her alone. A and B don't have any contact for awhile. Then B acknowledges she has a drinking problem and apologizes to A for the fight. So during that period of time where they weren't speaking to each other, they were "sideways."
Southerners, is my interpretation in the ballpark here?
I can't think of a similar expression in my Northwestern vocabulary; I'd just say something like "we were fighting" or "we weren't speaking to each other." I like sideways because it makes the disagreement sound more poetic :)
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