better late than never

i was looking through my little notebook of musings and came across this. should have posted on monday, obviously, but as the title says....


when duty sounds its ardent call
it pulls the bravest souls;
all those who aren't afraid to fall
pursuing higher goals.
the duty often is disdained
and those who do it spurned,
but see how quickly we profane
the liberties they've earned.
we owe a debt of gratitude
to those who've fought to shield
our privileges and attitude
and tools of honor wield.

kitchen skillz

moosh's mom is a baker. a multiple blue-ribbon winning baker. apparently, it's a skill she acquired overnight.

i am also, if i do say so myself, a pretty good baker. i love the activity, and i love to enjoy the results. (especially grandma's rolat. mmmmmmm.) pooka loves to bake, too. i have to break her heart so often when she requests that we bake simply because we cannot consume all the multitudes of goodies she wants to create.

but now she's in school. maybe we should start sending treats to kindergarten. i checked, none of the kids have allergies. well, some, but i don't usually bake with amoxicillin, or cat hair. (cat in the house means cat. hair. everywhere.)

i happen to know that the people at work enjoy the occasional baked good, as well. (how about 2 dozen donuts in 5 hours amongst 13 people?) i should indulge them more often. it would make my daughter so happy.

now when it comes to real food, i am seriously deficient. that is why we rely on kisu for wonderful savory num-nums. (he can bake, too, but he usually leaves that to me so as not to hog all the kitchen glory.) left to my own devices i will not starve, but i probably won't enjoy the meal, and neither will anyone else. it has to do with seasonings. proper levels and combinations thereof. i'm not a spice girl idiot. pooka loves to cook with kisu, also and is hopefully retaining what she's seeing.

that is why i think i'm perfectly suited to launching my own line of baby food.

heat fruit/vegetable until soft.

pulverize.

serve.

if wishes were fishes

we'd be in a desert.

still no word from rr's people. pooka hardly ever thinks about it, but i'm getting anxious. i'd like to move along. i know it can take a couple years sometimes before your wish gets fulfilled, but i'm just worried that we'll end up waiting for years only to wind up being told that she won't grant the wish anyway.

our struggle is coming up with a substitute wish. i finally came up with something i thought pooka would go far: meeting/being on set for h*nn*h montana. i brought it up to her and told her to think about it. after a week or so, she decided she wanted to switch. i hope i didn't lean on her too much. i want this to be her decision, but i wanted her to make that decision soon, so i could inform the wish manager.

i called and let them know about the change of heart, but guess what? that's about the most popular wish there is right now. another waiting list and another star who hasn't decided to actually grant wishes.

we have to come up with something that doesn't involve a celebrity. kisu and i are determined, though, that this experience should really be a once-in-a-lifetime event that she otherwise would never get the opportunity to do. a lot of kids ask for a shopping spree or a trip to uncle walt land. we have family in uncle walt land. pooka's practically guaranteed to visit at least once in her life. shopping? she's not big on that. if it were in a toy store, she would love it, but we won't allow it because we have nowhere to put all the junk she would grab. (most of it would probably be laced with lead anyway.)

reading back through my posts, i saw that pooka had suggested an alternate wish at that initial meeting: to sing with la*rie b*rkner. hmm, another celeb-centric wish, but maybe we could work with it. maybe a trip to one of those kid-a-pal**za type concerts WITH backstage passes or something. and make sure the concert is in another state. although this borders on 'might do it anyway', i think it might still be a valid wish.

help us out here. those of you who know pooka, or any exceptional 5 year old girl for that matter, what do you think she'd enjoy? anyone who suggests anything remotely barb*e will be summarily excommunicated.

on second thought

i thought pooka's revelation about santa claus would scotch the plans for this weekend's visit to the mall to stand in line with millions of other gullible families get a picture taken with him.

apparently not.

pooka confided to me last night that she was only "pulling my ankle" and that she really does believe in him. moreover, she wants to stand in line and see him.

[sigh.]

say cheese!

one day i asked pooka if i had told her recently how much i loved her. she got all teen-y on me, and said, "only every day." i think there was an eyeroll there, too but i'm not sure.

i asked, "only once per day?"

she said, "no, about a hundred."

i said, "well, i want to make sure you don't ever forget."

haughtily, she said, "i'm five and a half years old"

here i interrupted with "five and three quarters"

she reiterated, "i'm five and half years old. i have a photographic memory."

"who told you that?"

"i did."

"do you know what that means?"

"it means you remember everything."

"ok, smarty, but a photographic memory only works for things you see, not things you hear."

so i'm going to continue to tell you that i love you ad nauseum.

the anti-humbug

last night, apropos of nothing, pooka asked me if santa claus was real.

we've had our doubts about her youthful 'illusions', but here it was staring me in the face demanding confirmation. what to do?

aside from allowing the santa claus/easter bunny myths to enter our house at all, it is my custom to never lie to my kids, except when absolutely necessary. (for example, blaming the cat when i've eaten the last goodie.) i'm just not big on deception in general, although i admit i do occasionally neglect to correct misperceptions.

the mythical figures of the two biggest holidays are very difficult to avoid. and they make up such a precious part of childhood. (don't they?) i don't want to ruin pooka's childhood more than it already has been, nor do i want her to ruin another child's in a misguided attempt to share her knowledge.

kisu and i don't really emphasize the fantasy personae of the holidays, but what do you do when all the other channels in your world are spouting about the wonderful gifts brought by big red and floppy ears? or trying to shape behavior by threatening that those two won't bring gifts?

if i come out and break the spell once and for all, she's liable to conclude that all the other adults in her world are either lying to her or delusional.

ironically, pooka's skepticism does not extend to the tooth fairy. but it might be because she loves money enough to believe in anyone or anything who might give her some.

at any rate, last night i managed to avoid rupturing any dreams. i asked her if she thought he was real and she said no. i asked her how that made her feel. she said it made her feel sad because then she wouldn't get toys.

then i got all socratic on her.

"do you think that santa used to be real, but isn't now?"

"no."

"did you used to get toys?"

"yes."

"then don't you think that you'll continue to get toys for christmas?"

"yes."

at this point her materialistic core was satisfied that she would continue to get loot no matter who supplied it and she went back to watching tv.

i suspect that she isn't really interested in whether santa does now or has ever existed. sometimes i think she starts conversations just because she has a certain idea or phrase she wants stated. (she gets that from me; it gets me in trouble sometimes.) she is that clever.

but i'm not satisfied with the outcome of that conversation. i want to get into what the santa figure represents and the true meaning of christmas. right now, she is ALL about the presents. i know she's young, but i would like her to know that there's more to it than that. i think that there's room, even in young brains, for both ideas.

ring around the parking lot

is there anything more amazing than a rainbow? seeing one always refreshes my spirit. i feel it is a blessing from God.

Genesis 9:12-15 (NIV)

12 And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.

yesterday at work, ritts called out, "oo, a rainbow!" you should have seen the people scuttle out of their cubes. i didn't think others were as fascinated by them as i am. but i forgot that i work with 'creatives'.

we gathered in the two offices closest to the parking lot where the bow appeared. as we all gawked at God's glory, i realized that practically the whole circle was visible. the ring went right through the company parking lot and disappeared only in the corner where the shadow of the building obscured the colors. it lasted for several minutes before some glowering clouds slowly erased it from the sky. the colors were so vibrant, it was extremely uplifting. a beautiful way to end a day that contained rain, snow, and wind.

toof-fer-one

over the weekend bug cut another tooth. the companion to the one she already had on the bottom.

she now has more teeth than half the population of mississippi.

(pic to come when i get to a real computer instead of this mac which won't cooperate with blogger!)

make your peace

call all your loved ones, used-to-love ones, wish-you-loved ones. restate your devotion, reconcile your differences, confess your passion.

there's not a moment to lose. armageddon's on it's way.

the lions are 6-2. and got that way by absolutely slaughtering the broncos.

surely it's a harbinger of the end of days.


in other scores, michigan beat michigan state. so nothing new there.

where has all the horror gone?

although i have been reading a lot of complaints recently about the invasion of licensed characters into the halloween gallery, i noticed a lot of homegrown costumes. not very many people bothered to scary-up their homes, though. they are pandering to the young innocents instead of the older thrillseekers. (one house had occupants handing out candy while watching a basketball game from a couch in their garage.)

pooka had a great time either way. bug not so much.

granny inadvertantly left the hat to bug's costume at school, so she substituted a reddish-orange knit hat that covered the kid's entire face and made her look like a rooster instead of a chick. oh, well, close enough.

bug did not want to go out (after school is her cranky time) but we strapped her into a stroller anyway. as long as we were moving she was tolerant. she eventually fell asleep.

pooka enjoyed herself very much, even though the costume was my least favorite licensed character. the weather was much more conducive to trick or treating this year, although it was a bit gusty.

one house in poppa's neighborhood really goes all out. they put up a ragged picket fence covered in graffiti; crypts and grave stones on the lawn; black lights and cobwebs in the garage. last year pooka refused to pass this house, insisting that we cross the street instead. this year she not only stayed on the same side of the street, she even approached the people in the garage (accompanied by me). it was all for naught, however, as they were just apologizing for being out of candy. they offered homemade cupcakes and rice krispie treats instead. i was kind of surprised that they even bothered. aren't those things all taboo in these litigious and perverse times? i was glad when pooka said she didn't want either of those, but i took a cupcake anyway. (i suffered no ill effects, so that's one less lawsuit our court system will see.)

sunday school had distributed unicef boxes for this night. pooka had no idea what that was about and wouldn't have carried it if i hadn't insisted. when i was younger, we had them every year, and people were ready with a bowlful of change next to their bowlful of cavities candy. i guess they don't do that anymore. i had given her some seed coins and encouraged her to jingle the box as she approached the houses to let people know without outright asking for money. only two other houses contributed to pooka's collection.

about halfway through our circuit, pooka started to wind down. i informed her that we had to walk all the way back anyway, so she might as well collect more candy. a few houses later, she insisted that she had to pee. i chose the closest house populated with the most kids and asked to use their facility. again, i was surprised. they asked no questions but let us in and even left us alone in their home.

after her break, pooka was prepared to t-n-t a lot longer. we finished our route and went back to poppa's to meet up with kisu, who had just arrived from work.

we handed out some more candy, and then got to the good part: sorting the stash. she got a disproportionate amount of m&m's and reese cups. she also got a lot of hard candy/lollipops but very few chocolate bars for me to steal. i thought i would be satisfied by rifling the goody bag bug received from school, but it contained (ack) baby food and biter biscuits. what the?? that's no fun!

i guess i'll have to go to the store and buy my own.