A Worthy Opponent

I am always trying to find something to do with my 10 year old boy whose two passions in life are knives and guns. Bodily functions and repetitive noises run a close second. The other night we pulled out the mancala game and sat on my bed and played until we were cross-eyed and had so much fun. I taught him all of my tricks, and the student did indeed exceed the master!

The Fun House

Growing up with a mother who was sanity-challenged (is that the politically correct way to say she was nuts?) my life as a teenager was very small, and dark, and difficult and revolved around her moods, whether manic or depressed, who she hated or loved, and sometimes something as simple as what side of the bed she woke up on, whether or not her coffee was the right temperature, or if her ashtray was clean (an OCD issue). I lived in a house where we hid when someone knocked on the door. I seldom had friends over, and when I did, my mom would use the opportunity to cause me more shame and anger than it was worth. Living like this is quite miserable. I would see other people that got together on weekends, or had parties and events at their house and it seemed I always lived on the outside edges of those moments that make all the rest of life more bearable - the laughter, enjoyment and company of friends. I promised myself when I grew up and had my own kids and my own home, I would have an open door policy. I wanted my house to be a place where the kids in the neighborhood wanted to hang out. I wanted our home to be the place where people would gather. I wanted people to just love being there - no matter what. When my neighbor comes by for a cup of coffee, I set aside the chore I was in the middle of and invest 30 minutes into her life. When my kids' friends want to come by - I almost never say no. Tonight a neighborhood boy came by while Kaitlyn and Kullen and I sat on the porch playing Clue in the cool night air. A little while later, Michael stopped by even though he knew Kendra was at work, and joined in. I popped a huge bowl of popcorn and we drank iced tea and watched A Nightmare Before Christmas (poor Kendra - we missed her!). There was no pre-planning - people showed up and we made room in our lives for them and it was a super evening. It makes my heart so happy that people like to be here. I am also so thankful for a husband that never minds how many people are sitting at the dinner table or lounging in the living room. No more hiding. No more shame. I am living in the fun house!!!! (and often the nut house!) Come on over!

Feast or Famine - "Blah-gers Block"

Sometimes I have about a million topics that I want to blog about and other times I got nuthin'! It is a strange phenomenon I will called "Blah-gers Block". I don't know what causes it but boy have I had it today. A million things were going on at work, and so I felt like I jumped from one task to the other for most of the day. The kids and I read a couple of chapters in The Bronze Bow which is turning out to be a great pre-Easter read. Later in the afternoon we played a heated, hilarious, side splitting laughter, rambunctiously loud game of LIFE. I think the neighbors probably wondered who was being killed across the street - as the mild weather is allowing for all the windows to be open.
And on the subject of LIFE - the game is very realistic in some ways. Paying taxes, and buying a house, but what about the little things like, um toilet paper, groceries. These little plastic peg people never eat! What about the cost of living? I don't think that things could have changed all that much. My daughters were police officers and teachers each making $90,000 and $70,000 respectively - how unrealistic is that? My son got very upset that he landed on a spot that made him pay $20,000 for a home gym he didn't even want. I mean in real LIFE those kinds of things are choices. I think that we need to work on a more realistic version of this game. However, I never got a "baby" in the game - and noticed that I ended up with more money and was more relaxed in general. Whatddya make of that?
Hey - I found something to blog about after all!