If Clothespins Had Feelings

We made little clothespin dolls for our playgroup last week. Sarah drew her own mouth and eyes. This is the result. It turned out so cute, so unique. Apparently this little clothespin is not very happy with her lot in life. She's the Sandra Bernhardt of the clothespin world.

Found these photos of me (trying to document the condition of a full-length mirror in our rental) which were taken one year apart. The one on the left was taken in February of 2008, about halfway through my weight loss journey, and the second one was taken in March of this year. I like the difference. My mom has a better "before" photo of me taken at my heaviest, but I don't know if I dare publish it. We'll see. The point is, I love coming across these little reminders of all my hard work and the great results. Now I just need to keep winning the battle to keep the weight off. The key for me is exercise. Daily. For the rest of my life. It's daunting, but so worth it. I've heard people say, "Being thin feels better than any dessert (or whatever) tastes." I don't agree. I love food and am not willing to not eat the things I like. I just have to think, "This dessert (french fries, pasta alfredo, hot dog, whatever) will cost me X hours of exercise. Is it worth it?"

Can I just vent for a minute? My kids long ago began to "call" who would be whom when we watched a video or tv show, etc. They decided which character they wanted to identify with and would say things like, "I'm Princess Leia!" or "I get to be Laura Ingalls!" Well, they very quickly found out they all wanted to be the same character most of the time (except JR, who gets to avoid all this by being the only boy. He always gets to good parts.) Soon we started to hear things like, "I'm Princess Leia number 1!" followed by "I'm Princess Leia number 2!" and so on. For a long time this worked. Whomever was fastest got to be (character name) number 1, followed in numerical order by the rest of the group. I can handle that. After all, it is fun to pretend to be the heroine, so who am I to interfere with their solution to divvying up the plum roles? Arguments were avoided. Now, here's the problem. Someone discovered the word permanently. So now we not only have to numerically call out who gets to be whom, we also have to listen to everone add permanently to their "call" and then argue over who said permanently the time before. "I get to be Princess Leia number 1 permanently!" "No you don't, I called Princess Leia number 1 permanently last time!" It's getting old very quickly. And yesterday, Katie upped the ante by saying "I get to be (whomever) number 1 permanently dermanently!" I guess the repeated word with a different letter beginning adds more weight to the claim (I double trouble bubble dog dare you to!!) I may just strangle someone before the week is out! Maybe Russell. This has to be his fault somehow, right?

Rainy Day Blues (not!)

Friday afternoon I took the kids to the D.I. as a reward for uber-cleaning the house that morning. (Yes the D.I. is a treat for us, mostly because almost anything is within range of our budget.) The kids found some umbrellas they chose to purchase as their treat. I have rarely purchased umbrellas because A) they are either fairly expensive or they fall apart in a day, and B) IT NEVER RAINS. So the next day they are out in the back yard playing "lifestyles of the rich and famous" (their game, my name. Apparently, in their world view, rich people never let the sun touch their skin.) Suddenly, out of a partly cloudy sky, it begins to rain. You never saw such happy kids! It was like a dream come true. Rain!! And they had umbrellas!! One of those moments that make you glad you were there to share with them.

Quote of the week

This is one of my favorite quotes. It seems timely.

“You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man’s initiative and independence. You cannot help small men by tearing down big men. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income. You cannot establish security on borrowed money. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they will not do for themselves.” William J. H. Boetcker