Webcam Schmebcam

In jest, one of the members of the Board of Directors where I work teased that the organization should set up a webcam to watch what I really do on days when I work from home.

There is no need to go to all that trouble.

Beginning at 9:00 a.m., I open the door to several of the U.S. National Park Service's finest Park Rangers and we play strip poker until everyone is down to their hats.

Then we have a naked disco dance party for the rest of the afternoon.

[I don't ever stay in my pajamas, load the dishwasher, process the family laundry or scarf down less than desirable leftovers between back to back conference calls and deadlines.]

Let the record show my willingness to be completely transparent!

**********

Sorry the posting has been a bit thin around here.

Ever lose the thread of your own story?

Working on picking it back up...

Imagine A World

Last night The Rooster announced that no one in her class likes the color pink.

"But that’s crazy," I said. "Imagine the world without pink!"

"There wouldn't be any pink in the sky during sunrise or sunset!"

"Imagine a world without pink lemonade or baby piglets!"

The Mayor and The Rooster enthusiastically added their own list of pink things that would be missed.

This evolved into an elaborate game of “Imagine the world without…”

We imagined the world without a wole series of colors and then shifted to letters.

"What would the world be like without the letter B?" I asked.

"No butts!" The children declared.

[There was a great deal of imagining and discussion about how buttless beings might defecate.]

And so the game took its obligatory turn down Butts Lane – as any good game will - and we found ourselves pondering what life would be like if our bodies functioned differently.

The Mayor, falling all over himself with laughter yelled,

"Imagine a world where everyone ate rainbows and pooped butterlies!”

Close your eyes.

See it.

Now you are feeling what I feel.

Oh. The. Joys.

Obligatory Postween Photos

Between the Halloween Candy Buy Back Program and the age-old Inter-Sibling Trade Negotiations, I had an hour off this morning!

There must be something wrong with my children though... all the chocolate candy is in the bag for the soldiers and they only kept the sour, gummy, odd things.

[Suddenly I'm feeling rather Semper Fi...]

The Carvers

The Rooster

The Mayor

Happy Day of the Dead!

Capacitación en la Diversidad

Last night The Rooster chose Maria Shriver's book called "What's Wrong With Timmy?" as a bed time story.

The book's intent is to help kids understand that some children live with disabilities.

The book primarily focuses on the strengths of children with special needs and how much we all have in common, but there is one part of the book where other children make fun of the main character, Timmy, who has Downs Syndrome.

Timmy is sometimes called rude names simply because he is different.

"What do you think about that?" I asked The Rooster.

Roo flipped her palms upwards and bounced her forearms up and down emphatically as she spoke.

"I think that's crazy," she said, widening her eyes. "Differences are what make the world beautiful!"

[Oh, the great beaming pride!]

Just when I was privately gloating about my clearly AWESOME parenting skillz, The Rooster said more.

"Differences make everything pretty! I can wear pink and you can wear red! Everyone can have a different outfit and then... with everyone in different clothes... the world is REALLY, REALLY PRETTY!"

[Greatly shrunken and reduced beam of...]

Hers is a take on the benefits of celebrating diversity that I hadn't previously considered.

It is our differences that make the fashion industry work, people.

Be kind to others or you will never find the perfect fall boots.

"Is next... svim wear!"

Turn, Turn, Turn?

We have this book...

It has amazing illustrations, each page from the artistic style of a different culture.

I don't quite know what to say or how to explain the book to The Mayor and The Rooster though.

Oh, Biblical Scholars of the Internet, por favor esplain to me the larger meaning of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8!

Is it just the simple message on the surface of the words? There is a time for everything?

Or is it something else?

When is it time to kill? To hate?

When is it time for War -- and isn't that a slippery slope?

How does one explain this text to the short and loud people?

To everything there is a season,

and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, and

a time to die;

A time to plant, and

a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to kill, and

a time to heal;

a time to break down, and

a time to build up;

A time to weep, and

a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and

a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones,and

a time to gather stones together;

a time to embrace, and

a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and

a time to lose;

a time to keep, and

a time to cast away;

A time to rend, and

a time to sew;

a time to keep silence, and

a time to speak;

A time to love, and

a time to hate;

a time of war, and

a time of peace.