Dancing with Daffodils

The very first friends we made when we moved here six years ago are leaving our area and I feel a great loss. They helped us move in, they invited us to their son’s first birthday party and he became our daughter’s first friend.  We’ve celebrated many birthdays together, had countless game nights and picnics at the beach, done preschool co-ops and served together in church responsibilities. Earlier this week I went to help them pack up their house and my friend made these amazing cupcakes that she often makes and I love them.  As I shoved two of them in my face, I realized that I have this recipe and for the rest of my life when I make these cupcakes, I will think of Christina and her family.   Food connects us in a way that I don’t think anything else can because it combines the power to trigger memories through multiple senses with sociality, family togetherness, emotion and tradition.  My grandmother made homemade bread and my father loved coming home to the s...

I’ve had a terrible week socially.  I have said way more than I should have, made people cry, complained, was too open about my feelings, caused contention, been unkind and basically made it difficult for anyone to be around me and all unintentionally.   This is partly why I am an introvert, something I forgot this week.  The less you interact with people, the less you have to deal with conflict, drama and other people disliking you.  I am currently reading “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Won’t Be Quiet” and it has been wonderful to identify key parts of my character, most especially understanding what it means to be risk averse.  Extroverts tend to seek rewards while introverts tend to be averse to situations where there is a risk for a negative consequence.  This is a foundational characteristic of my personality and it is refreshing to know I am not the only one who does all I can to avoid trouble.  It can be good in cases of gam...

My kids recently started playing soccer for the spring season.  For my daughter, this was her first time ever playing a team sport and when her one and only practice got cancelled, I was worried.  She was anxious about her first game because she had never put on a pair of cleats or stepped on a soccer field before. Thankfully, when game time came, she listened to her coach and was out there chasing the ball like all the other kids.   My son’s start to soccer almost two years ago was not so smooth.  I signed him up when my daughter started kindergarten and he was lonely. I thought it would give him something to look forward to each week.  However, I hadn’t considered that he had never done anything without a big sister to follow and this led to one of my worst parenting experiences.  Even though his coach was our neighbor, he wouldn’t leave me and go out on the field.  After 15 minutes of trying to get him to participate I decided we weren’t go...

My four-year-old son recently finished his first t-ball season.  He had a handful of practices, seven or eight four-inning games and he really enjoyed practicing at home with his dad after using all of his money to buy a tee and a metal bat.  He had fun, enjoyed a great experience with some very kind coaches and he learned a bit about baseball and teamwork, all satisfactory results of the $60 spent and the time we dedicated as a family to having him at his practices and games.   At the end of the season his coaches provided a pizza party and said they would hand out trophies to the kids if parents were willing to purchase them.  I said yes to pizza and no thanks to the trophy, which I did for a couple of reasons. First, I don’t like clutter and my kids have a lot of stuff.  Why in the world do we need another hunk of metal to sit on a dresser?  Secondly, I didn’t want to spend $10 on said hunk of metal.  Thirdly, I didn’t feel that participating i...

I recently went to the doctor for a check-up and as we were moving from one room to another he watched me pick up my wallet and keys and asked, “Where is your cell phone?” I told him I don’t carry a cell phone and he asked, “What kind of American citizen are you, anyway?” I know most people think I’m crazy but I’m a relatively unplugged citizen.  I do have a cell phone but I usually leave it at home and use it more like a home phone than anything else.  Even more crazy, it is not a smart phone.  Unlike most people, when I’m out of the house, I like to be left alone.  After all, when I’m driving, at the doctor, at the store, or out with a friend or my husband, I don’t want to talk to anyone or be bothered or distracted.  I don’t mind moments of peace and quiet when I have to wait for something and don’t have anything to do.  Even yesterday in the car I was driving for awhile by myself and my first thought was that I should have brought something to liste...

So, today is my birthday.  I really used to love my birthday.  I spent a lot of them as a child and youth at the beach in North Carolina or at church summer camp and it was always exciting.  One of my favorite memories was the year they decorated my top bunk and we had a bat in the cabin and I was just sure I was going to wake up one morning with a bat tangled in the streamers right over my head.  My mother always made my favorite dinner which was either roast beef with mashed potatoes or stir fry.  Since it was right before school started I usually got lot of school clothes for birthday gifts.  Other memorable gifts include when I was a missionary in Kiev, Ukraine and my companion got me a new pillow for my bed to replace the huge and uncomfortable one I was using and then there was the year my husband took me to see Mary Poppins at the Kennedy Center. I love surprises and the anticipation of what was in store for me on my birthday always gave me a giddy...

Last week was the year anniversary from when I started my blog.  I appreciate those who take the time to read my posts and for the incentive that has given me to continue practicing my writing. I haven’t written much lately because I am pregnant and expecting child number four in January.  This means that even though I’ve had some really good ideas that I tried to write about, they didn’t come out very coherently and also that I’ve spent most of my afternoons napping instead of writing.   So this post is going to be a random assortment of thoughts that didn’t quite get fleshed out into their own posts.   1.  President Obama said something recently that really bothered me and so forgive this short, political rant.  President Obama recently signed a bill that “strengthened” the Equal Pay Act, which is supposed to eliminate all gender-biased pay in the workplace.  I think he is completely right in the fact that women and men doing the exact s...