1. I just gave away an hour and a half of my time wandering through emails and google searches. None of it helped me write a post. Really, it’s a wonderful way to procrastinate. One email was from a friend I haven’t talked to in years. I opened the Lands End clearance sale email. I shopped; I unsubscribed. I don’t need sale emails from Lands End, Jjill, or LL Bean, but I keep signing up for them and then unsubscribing.
2. I grew up in the midwest and moved to NC when I was almost 16. My comfort foods prove I am American white Anglo-Saxon protestant (WASP). Cottage cheese–one of my grandmothers ate it. Tapioca pudding–same grandmother. Very well-done pot roast–other grandmother (we kids called it stringy roast beef, meant as a compliment). Bologna and cheese sandwich, not fried, with mayonnaise. (I have moved from white Wonder bread to whole grain.) Casseroles with cream of mushroom soup. Grilled cheese (often still Kraft singles) and tomato soup (now Progresso low-sodium tomato basil instead of Campbell’s with milk). Regular potatoes, baked or boiled. Note the lack of color in most of these foods!
3. My husband grew up right outside of Pittsburgh in a Czech family. On his mother’s side, his grandparents never really spoke English. His comfort foods include sausage, all kinds. Stuffed cabbage. No casseroles, not even the green bean one. Good rye bread–his uncle had a bakery. Sauerkraut (which I learned one New Year’s Eve I couldn’t eat after drinking a bunch of alcohol.) Note how interesting his foods are.
4. A few years ago, I had knee replacement surgery. In the months before and after the surgery, one of the challenges was getting up and down from a chair or the toilet. While healing, I got dehydrated because I didn’t want to have to go to the bathroom–it hurt to sit and get up. So we learned about toilet height. Did you know there are toilets in between regular and handicapped height? We have those now. (We are aging in place, I guess.) The retired man I live with also found toilet seats that close slowly with just a gentle touch. (Why?) They delight him. Retired men go to places like Lowe’s and Costco to fill time and spend (justifiable) money. When Adaline started toilet training he found the same gentle-close toilet seats with a built-in little-kid-sized insert in the lid that drops down onto the regular size seats. She doesn’t like to poop that way, though, so we put a stool in front of the toilet for her feet. Grandpa gave the potty chair to Adaline’s cousin and we still haven’t replaced it.
5. We are a family who follow the early to bed and early to rise body clock. My daughters are grateful when they get kids ready to go to childcare so they can go to work. A couple of years ago, Adaline’s mother’s hours changed to 10 hours a day for four days a week–7:00 am to 5:00 pm. We kept Adaline some days–they’d arrive at 6:30 am. That is early. We took naps with Adaline those days. One son-in-law is a night person, bless his heart. We all stayed in a 3-bedroom beach condo one time. Poor Josh. We are a chirpy, noisy bunch at 7:00 in the morning. He works Monday-Friday 4:30 am to 1:00 pm. (He unlocks the Ralph Lauren distribution center in High Point.) He says it works for him because his body thinks it’s still nighttime at 3:30 am. It is. I would die.
6. Relationships–friend, spouse, partner, parent/child–take some effort. Healthy ones require vulnerability, trust, forgiveness, listening without judgment or advice, keeping secrets, and boundaries. I’m reading Brene Brown’s new book, Daring Greatly. She is a PhD social worker who has done years of research on shame and vulnerability. She uses stories and statistics to show how we all deal with shame and vulnerability (or choose not to). Check out Daring Greatly and her earlier book, The Gifts of Imperfection. She also has 2 TED talks: this one on the power of vulnerability and this one on listening to shame.
7. For the first time in my adult life, I am going to Sunday School. Clif, a true scholar, teaches and guides us. He gives us background information on one of the Bible readings for each Sunday. Last week he divided us into 3 groups, one for each of the main character groups in the reading. Lynn and I were Samaritans. What an interesting way to learn. I go to worship and have a deeper understanding of the sermon. I like being intellectually challenged and am glad I joined such a caring and supportive class.
Amma Ponders 