Ode to Cocoa Pebbles

You know, when I was college taking all my literature courses, we had to read John Keats...because he was, like, the staple amongst Romantic poets.

And he may have been great and all that, but really...an Ode on a Grecian Urn? How long did he stand worshipping the urn before he composed those fifty lines? I mean, I like pottery too, but not enough to write a flowery, prosy poem about it. Aaaah, what do I know about it?

Looking back, that above immature behavior was my youthful ignorance and underappreciation for the fine arts. And so, I intend to rectify that now. I do hope John will forgive for my poor imitation. It will certainly not be as beautifully lengthy as Mr. Keats'.

My subject will be one of my favorite breakfast cereals: Cocoa Pebbles

ODE TO COCOA PEBBLES

O sweet chocolate-sweetened rice cereal treat!
Thou art music to my tongue at break of day,
I would worship you every morning, had you feet.
Your delicate shape and airy form may
Remind of me of heaven and the wings of a dove.
Twelve vitamins and minerals added to every toothsome bite
It's you who makes my milk the chocolatey nectar of the skies -
And I would endure pain and suffr'ng sent from above
to experience your glory and revel in your carbohydrated sight.
Forget calories and sugar intake! I see naught but perfection
in your chocolate-coated eyes!


For Simpler Folk:

Roses are red,
violets are blue.
The only question today:
One bowl or two?

Hail Cocoa Pebbles!

The Threefold Law

OK, I'm not saying I've been everywhere and I've seen everything, so you fellow pagans out there...feel free to correct me.

Pagans and Wiccans, in general, try to live their lives as simply as possible. There are no Wiccan Ten Commandments, per se, but there are a few guidelines. One of the appealing things for me is the flexibility for interpretation of these guidelines. There are a couple of principles that I try to apply to my existence, which include:

1. Everything in this universe is connected and sacred. Everything.
2. People are responsible for their own actions - thus "Do what ye will, but harm none". Ultimately, whatever you choose to do, you must willingly accept the fallout, good or bad.
3. Because of the connectedness of the universe, whatever you send out into the world comes back to you.

This last one has been on my mind for the last day – it’s referred to as the Rule of Three or the Threefold Law. Basically, if you send out good vibes, that’s what you get back. Conversely, if you send out bad energy, that’s what returns to you.

It’s not a hard and fast, black-and-white rule, and thus, the skeptics inevitably have a problem with it.

Many Wiccans apply this rule especially when they are working magic. However, that is a realm in which I do not have much experience…but the Rule of Three is an idea I think would apply in the mundane world.

See, the problem at my house these days is the negativity. We are busy and stressed, certain members of the household are unhappy with their jobs, and relationships are just not exactly where they should be. There’s a lot of tension around here some days. My husband rolls his eyes at this, but this house has absorbed a lot of the negative energy – I can tell. Often I feel oppressed just when I walk into this house. It’s seeped into the carpets and walls.

I believe the Threefold Law is at work here. We’ve sent the negative energy out into the universe, and it’s now what surrounds us. No surprise, really. However, we are at least conscious of it now and are endeavoring to send positive vibes out into this house and world.

Alas, I suppose I should also locate a good banishing spell to get rid of the junk that’s still here.

Watching Little Ones

And no, I don't mean this in a deviant, pedophile way.

Life is pretty busy around here - almost more so than when I was working full-time. All five of us are involved in at least one activity...and that equals craziness.

However, I still have found the time to watch my children grow and marvel at what they can do.

For example, my ten-year-old now eats everything. I mean, he just simply falls to it. Seconds, thirds, and fourths, if it's something he really likes. He's growing, and I realize we are headed for the teen years. He's also a voracious reader, as well as avid video game player, drawer, and dancer. That makes me think of my friend Kimba's MBRH. He (MBRH) had the same interests as a kid, and he seems pretty cool now, so...

Then, Kirby is eight going eighteen. She's very much the mother hen, the leader, the bossy Bessy. I think I'm OK with that, though. I call her 'assertive'. Even if she does alienate some people because of it, I do think it's a trait that serves a woman well later in life.

And oh! The baby. Thank goodness he will still let me hold and kiss him. However, he knows how to maneuver his way around a computer! I let him have some laptop time in the morning, while I'm getting ready. (Don't worry, he only wants to go to Pokemon sites!). Well, he's quite the pro at mousing, clicking, etc. He hasn't really caught on to Internet surfing, though...LOL. So, while he's "mature" in that regards, he still is enough of a kid to want to lick the spatula after helping me make a cake.

I used to scoff when all those old folks instructed me to enjoy the time I had with them now, because they'd be soon grown up. Huh, well, I don't scoff anymore. I welcome each new phase of development, that's for sure, but it's mingled with that strangely hollow feeling that time indeed marches on. We sure don't get anything back.

I am thinking now of Robert Herrick's poem (famously quoted "Dead Poets' Society").

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying.
This same flower that smiles today,
tomorrow will be dying.

Oh, To Be a Parent In Colonial Times

Last summer, we visited Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, and I purchased (but forgot until Brent found it a couple of days ago) a pamphlet called "The School of Manners OR Rules for Children's Behaviour".

The title's much longer, but you get the point. A guide for how children in colonial times should behave. Check this out.

Chapter III - Of Behaviour at Home

1. Always bow low at coming Home, and be immediatly uncovered.

2. Be never covered at home, especially before thy Parents or Strangers. (What's all this with the hats?)

3. Never sit in the presence of thy Parents without bidding, though no Strangers be present. (Now, that's weird.)

4. If thou pass by thy Parents, or any place where thou seest them, either by themselves, or with Company, bow towards them. (Now, that one, I dig.)

5. If thou be going to speak to thy Parents and see them engaged in Discourse or Company, draw back, and leave thy business till afterwards; but if thou must speak, be sure to whisper. (Personally, I totally agree with this one. It seems I see a lot of parents who let their kids interrupt them in the middle of a conversation with other adults...uh, NO!)

6. Never speak to thy Parents, without some Title of Respect, viz. Sir, Madam, Forsooth; according to their quality. (By the way, viz. is another way to say "in other words".)

7. Approach near thy Parents at no time without a Bow. (What is UP with all the CAPITALIZATION?)

8. Dispute not, nor delay to do thy Parents' Commands.

9. Go not forth of doors without thy parents' leave, and return within the time by them limited. (The oft-battled-over curfew.)

10. Come not into the room where thy Parents are with Strangers unless thou be called, and then decently; and at bidding, go out; or if Strangers come in while thou art with them, it is manerly with a bow to withdraw.

11. Use respectful and courteous, not insulting or domineering carriage or language towards the Servants.

12. Quarrel not, nor contend with thy Brethren or Sisters, but live in Love, Peace, and Unity.

13. Grumble not, nor be discontented at any thing thy Parents appoint, speak, or do.

14. Bear with Meekness and Patience, and without murmering or sullenness, thy Parents' Reproofs or Corrections, nay, though it should so happen that they be causless or undeserved.

Obviously, I think that some of them are a little out-of-date...but, really, many of them are still relevant today.

Disappointment Builds Character

Nominate me now for Mom of the Year!!! Vote today! Mom of the Year today, President tomorrow!

It's this tale right here that's gonna clinch the award: three times in the past twenty-our hours have I taught my children the hard-boiled lesson of brooking disappointment.

Incident #1: Last night, Elliot took a miniscule bite of his tuna fish sandwich and three to four bites of his potato cheese soup (prepared by Spencer and I; it was a Weight Watcher recipe and will be made again in our house soon). So, I told him no sweets/treats/desserts later (my mom and I were going on a walk that would end up going past Smokey Row). At the time, he was fine with it. Later, my dad commissions my mom and I to stop by the store for peanut clusters (his sweet tooth attack). We brought them home, he opened them, and guess who wanted one? Yep. The kid who had eaten very little of his dinner earlier. I said no. I repeated it firmly a couple more times. Had I not been there, my dad would have totally let him chow down. Anyway, that was crying attack #1 - it was short-lived and we all survived.

Incident #2: Today, around 3:30, the older two get home from school and immediately go for a snack. No prob. I need to run some errands, and Elliot wants an apple to eat on the way. No prob. We get to my office, and it turns out there's cake in the faculty lounge. Spencer is offered a piece, Kirby declines, and Elliot wants one too. Except - he nibbled the skin off of his Pink Lady apple before handing it off to Kirby (apples, by the way, Brent informed me are, like, 89 cents an apple right now). So, by way of last night's example, no cake for Elliot. Crying attack #2, but again, he was done within ten minutes.

Incident #3: I'm picking up a few incidentals at Walmart (this is shortly after incident #2). In a weak moment, I am persuaded to buy a "Bop It" game. We play it in the aisles for several moments, laughing hysterically. What the heck, I think, I've been a hard ass the last day. We throw it in the cart, and I tell the kids explicitly, "No touching the Bop It. It's there now, and we'll play the crap out of it when we get home." Well, as we're waiting in line to play, Spencer is so bored and, while I'm distracted, he takes the game out of the cart to mess around with it. Huh. Well, I can't buy it for them now. So, yes, I make my kids put it back. And I was disappointed as well...it would have been fun to play. You should have seen Spencer's face. Very, very, very disappointed.

So yeah, I've been the Bad Mom the last day. However, it's possible my kids are better because of it.

Now gimme my trophy.

The Part-Time Circus

I'm wrapping up week four of the new job-career lifestyle, and I have to say...

I think I want to work part-time for life.

Yeah, I'm spinning three plates, but consider that I now get a decent lunch hour and I have time after work to get a pedicure and fix my kids' after school snack...well, it doesn't seem so bad.

I'm sure it will be different when the weather gets colder, but I love being able to step outside everyday. That I, in some sense, can experience the outside world in between the hours of eight a.m. and four p.m. is amazing.

Right now, I am crazily busy, and the schedule seems way hectic, trying to juggle work, soccer, gymnastics, Girl Scouts, and a community theater play, but I still am feeling a sense of peace. I'm not cooped up in a hermetically sealed, artificial environment all day. I have more freedom than I have for the last ten years. My husband and I chat in the mornings, and all throughout the day actually.

If my life were a commercial jingle right now, it would be "ba da ba ba ba...I'm lovin' it!"

Ten Dollars on Tuesday

Welcome September!

To me, September is one of those months that creeps in, unawares, while everyone else is either yearning for the leisure-days-gone-by of August or the costume-crazed candy fest at the end of October.

September the middle child. Of course, you love it, but you kind of forget about it when pulled apart by the demands of August and October.

The weather is already changing here. Mornings are cool, afternoons are balmy. It's hard to tell if fall is really here, of if there's a little Indian summer left in the seasonal gas tank.

Anyway, here in town, the local Farmer's Market is open on Tuesdays (and Saturdays, but I didn't have one of those handy). I live about two blocks from it, so my clever idea for the day was to walk the kids up to it. We'd combine some local shopping time with a little exercise with a little snack. Three birds with one stone.

I took only ten dollars. After we browsed one time, we were ready for purchases...

1. After sampling jams, the kids chose the pear jelly. The vendor here also gave us all free, organic, pesticide-free apples. :)

2. Homemade toffee.

3. A loaf of wheat bread. How could we buy jam and not bread?

4. By this time, I had seventy-five cents left. Just enough for a chocolate chip cookie for each child.

And that's it. My ten dollars were gone. I didn't buy any produce, no veggies, no melons...but the rewards?

1. A pleasant walk in the sunshine with my children.
2. A smug feeling at boosting the local economy.
3. Homemade toffee that I would waste a diet for.
4. An conversation with my children on the way home that ran along the lines of..."people at farmer's markets are much nicer than at Walmart."

My advice to you: go find a FM to patronize! Today!