Monkey Boy?

Something very terrifying happened yesterday while Eric, Aiden and I were out shopping. I'm still not completely sure what to think about it, it makes me very uncomfortable.

We had just finished shopping at the Home Depot and we were headed toward the checkout. I was half paying attention to my surroundings, I was more concentrated on looking for the smallest line at the registers. I was pushing our cart filled with our purchases and Aiden was riding in the front of the cart, facing me. Eric was walking beside us. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed two children running toward us up the main isle. They were hollering and having fun and whizzed right past us. They were black.

After the kids had run by and were long gone, Aiden looked up at me and said "Mommy, a monkey....it's a monkey boy!"

My heart sank. I kept walking and pushing the cart toward the checkout but I was frozen inside. My heart was pounding and my mind was racing about what I should say, if anything, to Aiden. Meanwhile, louder, Aiden kept saying "Mommy, did you see that, it's a monkey boy...it's a monkey boy Mommy...over there." Eric didn't hear any of this. Even worse, as I remained frozen in time and was starting to perspire through my shirts, we were still walking towards the checkout and coming in the other direction was the children's father.

Eric and I are very open minded people. We never make jokes or disrespect other people's color, religion, sexual preference, or anything else for that matter. I am a democrat and Eric is a republican so even any discussion about politics is usually two sided. I am bewildered by Aiden's comment. Where did he come up with that? I am angry about it, but then again, how can I be angry at the comment of a 2 year old? He doesn't know any better. He is ignorant to the World of bigotry and hatred. In fact, maybe that's the problem...we don't mention anything about other people's color or nationality and the fact is, in our community the high majority of people are white. We all look the same. I cannot think of a single playmate or even adult in Aiden's life that is another nationality or race. The only exposure I can think of to people of different race for Aiden, is on the television.

One of Aiden's favorite shows is the Little Einsteins. One of the children on the show, Quincy, is black. We have a doll of Quincy that he plays with. A picture of Quincy was on his last toothbrush. He has never said anything like this about Quincy...

So, back to the store. I am disgusted to say that I changed the subject. I focused his attention to the apple he was munching on and rushed in to the closest register before the children's father could hear what Aiden was saying.

In the car, I asked Eric if he heard what Aiden had said. Of course, he didn't. Eric asked me what I did and I explained that I didn't know what to do and told him that I had changed the subject. He asked me why...he pointed out that sometimes saying nothing, is as bad as saying something...Eric is right. Now I really feel bad. I am the worst mother ever.

In hindsight maybe I should have said 'No Aiden, that's a boy and he's just like you.' Or maybe I should have said 'Oh, do you think that boy is acting like a monkey because he is running through the isle?' I don't know. But instead of acting like a parent and taking the opportunity to teach my son, I was stricken with fear that I might say the wrong thing, so I say nothing at all.

Truth is, I really want to blame my reaction on society. We are all so afraid to point out anything that is different about somebody else for fear that we might be called a racist, a sexist or a bigot. Or that God-forbid, someone tell me that I am closed minded or a "redneck." But the real truth is, my reaction is up to me, not society. I should have taken the chance to point out that the boy was not a monkey. And, if I would have done that, I would have felt better about myself and the situation. Now for another question...if I had taken the moment to explain, would Aiden have understood? (After all, he is only 2)

"People are like trees, it takes time to grow a good one." -Kate West

Let it Snow...Again

Last night, it snowed again...about 4 inches this time. I think this makes for a total of almost 50inches so far this year. According to our local meteorologists, that's a little more than half of our usual total for the entire season. We have a lot of snow.

When I awoke this morning to once again find everything in a blanket of white, I couldn't help but think, 'Wow, it looks so pretty outside'. Then reality hits...Sure, it looks pretty out, but every time it snows, there is so much work to be done.

We shovel a path from the door to the driveway. Then shovel out the door to our workshop or "bunk house". Then we shovel a path for Onyx (our dog) to his dog house. Then, of course, Eric (or his father, who lives next door) needs to plow. We plow a lot of road. We live on a private drive which is probably 2 miles long total. Our house is about 3/4 of a mile in. So, we plow from the beginning of the drive, to our driveway, then plow out the driveway. Plus we plow out some neighbors and of course plow out Eric's parents. Their driveway alone is another 1/2 mile. Then, we own land just outside of this private drive where we plan to build some day and we plow that area out as well. Luckily, Eric actually enjoys plowing, but there are times when big storms hit that he's pretty much plowing around the clock just to keep things open.

The first year Eric and I lived here we had to hire a bucket loader to come in and take some of the snow out. The road was so closed in that the side mirrors on our cars were literally touching the snow banks at times. It hasn't been that bad since and that was 6 years ago. But, this year, I have a feeling that we should be prepared for something similar. Eric has already shovelled off the roof and now we can barely see out of one our kitchen windows.

As a kid I grew up just outside of town. Town never gets as much snow as the hills (where I am now). When I moved up here, I really didn't realize what I was stepping into-it just looked like a nice, quiet place to be. I didn't even think about how the Winters could be so different. The first year here, I almost went insane. Truth be told, when the end of January and February roll around, I am still just about going insane. Every year at some point, I think to myself, 'What the hell am I doing up here? Life would be so much easier back in town.' But you know what, I have to admit, that I am actually coming around. It has taken me almost 6 years, but I'm getting there. I'm starting to realize that sometimes, snow can actually be fun...I should attribute most of this to Eric. He never let me just hate the snow and stay inside. The first winter, he bought me snowshoes and he pushes me outdoors as much as possible. Finally, he doesn't have to push me so much. Sometimes, I actually want to go outdoors in the winter on my own!

Hmmm...let's think this through....

Things I don't like about snow:

1. Driving in it

2. Shoveling

3. It's messy

4. It's cold

5. It's wet

6. When there is a lot of it, it feels claustrophobic

7. In bad storms, it's hard to get out of our road and sometimes we end up home bound

8. Waking up earlier to start the car and brush it off

9. Did I mention it's cold and wet?...

Things I like about snow...

1. Snowshoeing

2. Sometimes it's really pretty

3. Sliding w/ Aiden

4. Making snow angels w/ Aiden

5. Snowball fights

6. Making snowmen

7. Coming back inside after playing in the snow. (it feels so good to have a hot cup of hot cocoa and wrap up in a warm blanket after coming in from the cold)

8. I get to wear my snow pants which I think are really cool

9. I also get to wear my winter sweaters and I really like sweaters.

Yup, it's a close call. But, I suppose, most of this probably doesn't matter. Where I live, winter comes whether we like or not. And the fact is, I'm not going anywhere...

"When you know you can't win, consider another game."-unknown

The Tree is Out!

Yes, that's right...we took our Christmas tree down today.

Ever since I have had my own tree, I have taken it down the day after Christmas. It's not that I don't like having the tree in the house because I do, it's just more convenient this way.

I always take the day after Christmas off because there is so much to put away and clean up after a day of opening packages and gathering new loot. I need the day to get organized again and get ready to go back to work. In some ways, the day after Christmas is just as much fun for me as Christmas itself. I get to really go through all that our family received, take it out of the packaging, play with all the gadgets and toys and find a spot to keep them. Getting the tree out of the house is just one of the things I do to get my home back in order. Besides, I found a much better place for it. A place where it can loose as many needles as it wants and be useful at the same time...right next to the bird feeder that's mounted outside our picture window! The chick-a-dees love it. I left the strings of popcorn of cranberries draped around the branches and they have been pecking at it all day.

Eric got this feeder from his parents for his birthday just a few weeks ago. The picture window is in our kitchen/dining room and the table is placed just on the other side of the feeder. It's great to watch the birds fly in toward the window, only perch inches away and feed. Aiden loves watching them fly in, take a seed, fly away to a tree to eat it and them come back for more. He tries to calling to them "chick-a-dee-dee-dee" to see if they'll call back but he usually ends up scaring them off instead! It's pretty cute!

I have to say, this simple feeder and the chick-a-dees who come to visit, have added lot of entertainment and joy to our dining area! They deserve to have the tree!

"The life of the land, is in all things living."-Unknown

Happy Winter Solstice!

The Solstice is here! It is a time to celebrate the first day of winter, the longest night of the year and the rebirth of the Sun. For the next 6 months, daylight will get longer and gradually it will become warmer invoking the spring flowers and leaves the bud and bloom!

With the Solstice comes other celebrations such as Christmas and New Years. This weekend, Aiden and I spent hours trying our hand at one the most traditional ways to celebrate the season...Christmas cookies. Now, let me just say up front, I am not the greatest baker. This was quite an undertaking for me, but I really wanted to give it a shot. Besides, it's something Aiden can help doing (sort of ).

6 hours of baking cookies is a long time! To be honest, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I really didn't expect to be baking for 6 hours. Am I truly that naive to the world of baking? I picked 4 recipes that I wanted to try out of the Better Homes and Gardens Christmas Cookie magazine. I stuck to the ones that looked fairly easy, ones which made me think 'okay, I could do this one with a toddler in the house'. First, espresso balls-prep time 25mins, bake time 15mins. This is one is a piece of cake, right! According to the recipe, I could pump out 54 espresso balls in about an hour (provided I was baking about 3 batches). An hour a half later I ended up with 24 balls. Okay, so they taste great...but lets get real here. I think the recipes should post prep times for beginners. And 54 balls? The recipe calls for making 1 inch balls and I have to tell you, I think I was pretty close.

3 more to go... Next on the list was strawberry shortbread cookies, then peanutty peanut butter cookie sandwiches and lastly, sugar cookies with icing. Once again, I found the prep times to be a lie and the expected output to be completely exaggerated! According to Better Homes and Gardens I should have been able to make 180 cookies in about 4 hours. Not even close...*And, as a side note, it certainly wasn't Aiden's fault that it took so long...he was bored after about an hour decided to play with toys instead.

But, with all that aside, it was still fun and Aiden did enjoy licking all the spoons and decorating the cookies (more like eating the icing and sprinkles!) His favorite treat wasn't the cookies that took so long make, but acutally the pretzels sticks dipped in white chocolate. That took about 10mins...go figure!

Happy Holidays to all!

The cold and dark of winter are as necessary to life as the heat and light of summer.--Kate West