Sleeping Children

I once read that if you are experiencing any bad feelings toward your children (frustration, anger, etc), that you should look at your child sleeping. Indeed all children are beautiful and instantly lovable while sleeping. I get to experience this every night. We don’t tell many people we know this (because we are always told to stop this “bad habit” right away), but we stay with our children until they fall asleep. I really look forward to getting into bed with my daughter. We talk quietly, cuddle, and sometimes I sing to her if she requests it. We are quiet together until I hear her breathing become slower and heavier. When she is fast asleep, I tip toe out. I know that there will come a day when she will tell me she doesn’t need me anymore and that she wants to fall asleep on her own. I cherish this time as one of my favorite simple pleasures of motherhood.

Bush and Cheney have Broken my Heart

Yeah, so many of us are against this war in Iraq, but where were you before it started? I was arguing with friends and acquaintances and anyone who would listen. Everyone’s mind was made up — we have to stop Hussein!  Just because I spoke out against the war, people called me and others like me anti-American.  Back then, displaying the American flag seemed to mean that you were pro-war against Iraq (I still don’t understand that one)  I don’t do it as often as I should, but before the war started, I wrote a snail mail letter to President Bush pouring my heart out about why I did not want our country to go to war. I fantasized that someone in the White House would read my letter and it would be published in the NY Times as a testament to peace (or something sappy like that). Then others would read it and join me in persuading Bush not to pursue the war. Ok, as I said, it was a FANTASY. Anyway, back on earth, I assumed I would get some kind of form letter thanking me for expressing my opinion, and laying out Bush’s position for the war. What do you think I got instead? A big fat NOTHING! Our government doesn’t even care enough about me to respond to a heartfelt letter to the President! Well, that sends quite a message don’t you think? The message that has been sent over and over by this administration is: We don’t care what anyone else thinks. We don’t care what the facts are. We make up our own facts to try to shut you up and then we do whatever we want whenever we want. We will torture. We will ignore due process. We will ignore privacy laws. We will ignore habeus corpus. We will ignore global warming. We will ignore global suffering. We will ignore our soldiers as soon as they become injured. We will lie to recruit soldiers. We will lie to line the pockets of big business. I could go on and on. Feel free to add more. My heart is broken and I have lost my will to fight this. We have lost too much of what I have loved about the United States of America. Can we get it back? I really, really hope so. Ok, my heart is broken but I have hope. That is the best I can say about it all right now.

Farewell to a Beloved Tree

We got a notice from the village yesterday that they will be cutting down the beautiful tree in front of our house.  Many years ago, it was struck by lightening and it has been struggling ever since.  We have a big bay window in our living room that looks out onto this tree.  Our bedroom window also looks out onto it.  It frames the front of our house.  We have been calling her our “enchanted tree.”  My son and daughter and I have been talking to it and putting our hands on it for a few weeks now.  We were hoping it would rally if we sent it a healing message.  My daughter and I have been very sad since we got the news.  My husband, knowing how much I love the tree, said, “It’s about time.”  I thought that was pretty cold.  When I shed some tears for the tree, he just didn’t get it.  Yeah, it is a tree, but it is our tree.  Out here in the ‘burbs there isn’t much to look at, but that tree was one of the nice things about our front lawn.  I’m going to talk to the village to make sure that there is nothing else we can do.  Wish me luck.

Hummers Make Me Freak

Whenever I see a Hummer (in my area, it is almost every day) I freak.  First, I wonder whether we are being invaded and I expect a group of soldiers to emerge from its doors.  No real fear there, of course.  Typically, there is just one person inside.  Have you ever noticed how a Hummer driver parks?  Of course it must be difficult to fit this monster in a space, however, I have noticed that Hummers drivers like to park over the line.  Usually, they are just crooked enough to take over three spots.  Not cool.

Impeach Dick?

My congressperson wants to impeach Dick Cheney.  I don’t like most of his tactics, but I don’t see what will be accomplished by starting impeachment proceedings.  When Clinton faced them, I felt it was such a distraction and nothing truly important getting done in Congress.  The only positive side to impeachment (besides pulling him from power) is to show the rest of the world that his own citizens do not like what he has been doing.  My feeling has always been that,  for the sake of the nation, Clinton should have resigned and let Gore take over.  Who knows where we would be had Gore run against Bush as an incumbent.  Anyway, when I heard that there is an effort to impeach Cheney, all I could think of is, here we go again!

Our Children are Toy Testers

Did you know that our children are toy testers? Yes, the toys come out of the factories, into the stores and into our homes before they are tested for safety (this includes the presence of lead). I don’t know about you, but I am willing to pay more money for toys (indeed, they are pretty cheap nowadays) for them to be tested BEFORE they reach my home. Recently, in light of the Walmart lead in the bibs recall, I purchased a few at home lead test kits. Thirty seconds and then a result. How difficult can that be for our government to manage? If you are a parent, and you are not getting the Consumer Product Safety Commission emails about the recalls, you should. (www.cpsc.gov) I do, and almost every week something from China is being recalled for lead. With the deaths and severe medical injuries from Rose Art’s Magnetix, I have had enough. No one needs to die because he or she played with a toy.

I Love Doing Nothing

Do you ever just sit and do nothing? My husband was at work, my son asleep and my daughter was at a playdate. I just wanted to veg on the couch. First, I made myself a big salad for lunch. But after scarfing that down in the usual five minutes, I started to feel guilty. I picked myself up off the couch, gathered up the pile of mail from the past few days and went through it. Then I paid a few bills, made a quick call to my dad and POOF! an hour and a half was over and my son was up. I guess I will try to do nothing again tomorrow.

My Movie Was Ruined

My husband and I went to see Spiderman 3, an 8:30 show. We hardly ever get to the movies so I was very excited. We watched in dismay as family after family brought children under ten. One looked to be about three and a few others were six or so. If you haven’t seen it, there is a ton of violence. There are also some very, very scary creatures in this one! One of the creatures crawled out from under a bed and attacked someone. Whenever there was a scary scene, I couldn’t help but worry about those children and what they were seeing. I couldn’t enjoy it at all. My husband and I try very hard to avoid any negative images from crossing their view. Why do parents bring their kids to these movies? What do their children gain by them?