Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Ruminations

Just a few things I have been thinking of lately...


1.  People are too trusting.  Why would you put a sticker on your car stating where your child goes to school or worse yet those clings that have the sports team on them with their number in the center of the football or volleyball or soccer ball.

 The other day I said, "the only thing that could be worse, is if they had their name on it as well."  Then I got up close to the car and noted that it was definitely worse.  There in nice block letters under the number was the child's name.  Wow!  (Ok, I may be a little guilty of this with the blog.)
2.  Why is it that what kids hear is so different than the truth and why can't they see the paper on the floor in front of them that you want them to pick up?  Does their mind really block out the image of the paper, so that they really don't see potential work or are they just pretending?  And talk about selective hearing.  On the 8th grade football team, some kid got locked in a locker.  Sam reported that he was left in there for 4 hours.  I was horrified, knowing how scared I would be, as well as understanding the break down of muscles that are forced in unnatural positions for hours!  I kept thinking about it all week.  Finally, I asked the team mom.  Apparently, the kid challenged them to lock him in and then they were just a little slow in opening it.  The coach, when telling the other team about it, said, I am here for 4 hours, I don't need to be here longer to take care of something like this.  Yah, not the same thing at all.  The team mom said that she had heard the 4 hour thing from tons of parents, though.  Obviously, kids hear things wrong the same way.  What is that?  There needs to be some research done on this topic!
3.  A friend of mine put up an article on FB about how many of the women in the church feel that they should have more of a leadership role in the church (not the priesthood, just more say in things.)  I answered in my indelicate way, because I frequently don't think, before I comment.  But I still stand by the base thought.  We have a dearth of leadership in the women of the church to begin with.  Once that is corrected on the ward level, we might be able to take more of an active roll.  I really was impressed with some of the early day leaders.  I haven't been too impressed, lately.  The talks in General Conference by women tend to be surface things that are said with a tear in their eye and a smile on their lips.  As my friend said, "we need leaders that say more than 'I don't know, but I like little puppies.'"  After thinking about it for awhile, I decided this is part of my calling, to help the girls become strong leaders.  The YW president must have been on the same wave length, because she just did a lesson on Captain Moroni

and why he was a real hero (leader) and how we can emulate this in our own lives.  It was wonderful!
4. We DVR-ed the Olympics.  We haven't had a lot of time to watch them, but we are steadily getting through it.  We are on day 14 now.  We loved watching the Marathon.  I was so impressed with Kenyan team.

They worked together as a team.  The water was only on one side, so whoever was on that side, raced out in front of the pack, so that they wouldn't trip anyone up and then grabbed the water for the team and then came back and handed it out.  Running is what these women do, to get money for their families, yet they took the time to help each other.  That is a lesson we could all use!  Ok, so I was really impressed with all the women- I couldn't run one mile that fast and they just ran 26.2 miles that fast!  Dang!!  We also noticed a couple new sports: rhythmic gymnastics- I used to think it was kind of stupid, but it's actually really impressive.

2.  Water polo- those guys are bru-tal in the water!  They are sitting on each other's heads and pulling each other's suits off.

Crazy!  3.  Synchronized swimming-  Joseph said, "those guys are really flexible!  And their in swimming suits!  Ha ha!  Well at least we know Joe is not gay!
5.  One of my Young women asked on FB what the deal was with Chick-fil-a.

She got some rather negative comments about the guy. I hate trending or putting myself out there for people to criticize.  (One of my friends said something I said on FB was trending, because it was about guns and it was right after the Batman shooting.  I took it off FB.) But this time I decided I needed to say something.  After a couple back and forth's with this guy, I thought, I need to leave this alone.  But then I decided no, I needed to make sure my YW know what the arguments are, so that they just don't see one side of an issue.  One side seems to be portrayed more often than the other in the media.  I started really noticing that with this election.  The way things are phrased in the headlines, make it really obvious what side the media takes.  In the end, the guy decided to stop commenting back and forth with me.  Point to me!  Ha ha!  It's made me feel like I need to get smart on several issues, though- which means work!  Not cool!
6.  Why did God make you uglier and smellier the older you get?  Is it like the whole 9 months of pregnancy thing.  By the time you have had a kicking, squirming thing inside you for 9 months you're ready to go through anything to get it out?  So, by the time I roughly smell like a skunk and look like a hag, I'll be ready to say adios?  (I'm not saying all old people smell like skunks and looks like hags- just me.)
7. We have been teaching Sam about swagger, lately.  Wisdom we learned from Money ball- don't have an ugly girlfriend.  The coach notices that and thinks you don't have any self-confidence.  Sam has been trying to thwart all attempts at us teaching him.  Yesterday he mentioned our cute neighbor girl, though.  I said, "I thought she had a boyfriend?"  Sam said, "She broke up with him."  Ah, moving in!  Nice!  See they really do listen, even if they pretend not to be!
8.  Which brings me to number 8.  Why, oh why was I not more of a player growing up? (I really had one boyfriend the whole time- we were on again, off again, but I didn't date hardly anyone else.)  We are encouraging all our children to taste all the ice cream out there

and not just have one kind all through high school!  The Mormon kids around here do some really fun dates.  I hope I can continue the tradition once we move to Germany.  We didn't do much actual dating when I grew up in Germany.  I don't know if that was because we were so busy (5 varsity letters and a couple clubs, besides all the traveling!  Not much time to hang out!) or if it was because we had no money, but the dates these guys come up with require very little, if any money and they are super fun!  I have got to get more ideas from them!!  Then it will just require forcing my kids to do it!  Planning, planning!

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

1. yes, people are to trusting. In the last week I have stood beside two cars that were a child was left in a running car alone for over 15 min. while a parent did a quick errand. I just stood there and walked away from the first and the second I reported to the store management, the mother over head me and told me off- "my daughter is fine the doors are locked" really you at stupid to think that a locked door would stop anyone from stealing your car and/or your child.

you really did date more people than just Tim in high school but in your small school everyone knew everyone and no guy was going to dis Tim by asking out his girl. Just remember the rep the girl got who did date around.


Emma isn't sixteen yet so you have time to get her ready for dating and Sam isn't even `14 yet so slow down guy and don't forget those wonderful but not so pretty girls either.

love you all mom