Tuesday, June 24, 2008

"The Road", Cormac McCarthy

My husband recommended I read, "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. Yeah, yeah, Christian friends, I know it's an Oprah's Book Club selection. He read it recently and was moved...I don't know that I've heard him talk about a book so much in recent memory. I'm not going to discuss the content -- it's a hard book to read. Frightening. Kept me awake until 5:00 am the night I finished it...In fact, I HAD to finish it, because I didn't want to go to sleep on it unfinished, so I read straight through 200 pages.

My lingering thought, after the fear has somewhat faded, could be summarized by one of the lines uttered by "The Man" (the father). To paraphrase him because I've already returned it to the libarry, "God gave me the job of taking care of you (spoken to "The Boy", his son) and I'm going to do what I must to make sure nothing happens to you." The Man knew this was a life or death promise.

I haven't looked at my girls the same way since I finished this book. I have let some things slide that I wouldn't have let slide before. Life is too short, and some things are just not that important. It is my heartfelt desire to protect their innocence, provide for their safety, give them comfort, solace, and a home filled with joy and laughter. More importantly, I must pray for their hearts to be protected, comforted, and to find salvation, and therefore joy in the Lord alone.

Read this book, but do it in the daytime. With a light on. And a loved one nearby. And finish it before 11:00 pm...or you won't sleep.

**** Update**** It's a movie. Arghhhh. Now I'll never shake it from my mind. Viggo Mortensen is The Man. Robert Duvall is also in the movie as the Old Man along the road to whom The Boy begs his father to share their food. Will I see it? Of course not! (That means I probably will...at home with the lights on on a Saturday afternoon when the girls are gone...)

Recent Ingrid-isms and Ilsa-isms


"Arrrrrr!!! We're princess pirates and we are going to knock your house down!!!!" - Ingrid

Ingridisms:


  • Disney film, "The Fox and the Hound": "Fox in a Box"
  • "Mommy, for Halloween I'm going to be a Princess Jasmine Ducky Bunny"
  • "Mommy, for Halloween, can I be those guys on the spaceship? You know, the ones that look like the Wiggles, but in space?" (This took a while to figure out -- she's talking about Classic Star Trek!)
  • Star Trek: "Star Tricks"
  • Guitar: "biolin" (like violin, with a 'b')
  • Tinkerbell (the fairy): "Tinklebell"
  • Bellybutton: "Bellybutt"
Ilsaisms:

  • Bathing suit: "babysoup"
  • Hug: a "hawg", as in, "Mommy, can I have a hawg?"

Beauty Sleep


Look who I almost tripped over on my way up to bed a few weeks ago while we were visiting Grandma and Grandpa J. Just her size.


The human body is very adaptable

We formerly lived in one of the coldest places in North America...not unusual to be sub-zero for weeks on end in January. It was 110 this weekend in Almost Mexico, AND we knew we had to finish our backyard before the upcoming "monsoon" season. (We have this weather phenomenon called the "monsoon" every summer -- no, we don't live in Bali.) It can be perfectly sunny and 110 at noon, and multiple inches of rain dumped down at 4:00 pm, then clear again by 6:00.

We put down 11 tons of "desert brown" 3/8ths inch crushed rock in our backyard this weekend. Surprisingly, it looks really nice -- very finished and groomed. We have a couple of trees, some soft grasses and pretty boulders. Anyway, we had the rock dumped in our driveway on Thursday morning (it was well over 100 that day), schlepped rock Thursday, Friday and Saturday. But we are done!

All of this to say, the human body is very adaptable to climate change. Both of us were surpisingly un-uncomfortable...as long as we kept drinking water.

The best thing about a rock backyard is the new little kiddie pool for the girls -- no grass clippings on their feet, or mud tracked into the house. It's the little things that put a smile on a mom's face.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Goin' to the "libarry"/Whoo hoo Daddy's Home!

Yesterday, Mama took the girlies to the local library for the preschool "reading" hour. It's more like controlled havoc. I sat back and watched with the hope that my beloved little girls (4 and 2 years old) would actually listen to the (silly) story that was being read -- which no one could hear above the din. There always seems to be that one kid who is totally out of control, and his/her parent is oblivious to this fact, or just doesn't care; I think it is usually the case that this parent is soooooo worn out because this is Johnny's normal mode of operation and they are just ignoring it.

What do bean bag games have to do with reading hour? Or singing the "peanut butter and jam" song? I dunno. But my girls actually participated this time, which is better than last week.

The great thing about the library, though is it is nice and cool. That's important here in Almost Mexico (thanks to my wonderful friends V & K for that phrase, pertaining to the northern border in their case) where it is going to be 101 today and 106 tomorrow.

We did manage to get out alive with 19 children's books and a few DVDs of varying quality and a copy of "The Road" for me -- I'm scared to read it though, after Hubby described his experience with the book. He really felt it was a great read but bleak, bloody and scary.

Last night, we sat on the curb and waited for Daddy to come home. Ingrid met him at the corner and escorted him home. I'm so glad he rides his bike to work. As of today, gas is $3.79 a gallon.
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...