Bad Blogger Attempts to Redeem Self With Photographic Offerings

I know, it's been over a week! I'm as shocked and dismayed by my lack of commitment and self-discipline as you are, believe me! Probably more so with my Virgo rising.

It's been a crazy couple of weeks since the kids got out of school, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't love having them home. Yes, I know, most mommies can't wait for summer vacation to end because their kids get bored and they don't know what to do with them or something. I can't say I really understand it. I don't know why my kids don't get bored, all I know is I love summer vacation. I love not having to get them up in the morning, I love not having to make sure they do their homework, I love letting them stay up late reading and playing video games, I love camping in the backyard.

I was going to post yesterday, but I ended up playing with a bunch of pictures instead! The upside of that is I have a nice bunch ready to upload. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how many blogger can comfortably publish at one time, so here are just a few to get you started.

If I were a good blogger I'd look up the genus and the species of this toad for you, but I'm not. Thus, I leave it to you, my sleuthy, google-happy friends, to educate me. If you feel like it, or whatever.

This shot of Yo & PJ is one of Ebo's from our most recent camping trip. I love this picture!

I call this one "Stowaway." It's another job for our trusty internet sleuths! Whoever names this one by genus and species gets a free box of Giradellis!
Origins: Found while unpacking a suitcase several days after we returned from camping. She was pretty shriveled up inside her shell when I found her, so I tossed her into a nearby glass of water. I was absolutely delighted when she started to climb up the side of the glass!

Status: Rescued and successfully relocated to the rock garden. Lucky for her I don't have any ducks or geese!

Favorite Sons: This photo came about because of the other photo posted earlier of the boys when they were younger. PJ saw it and decided I needed to take a new picture "in front of the refrigerator." I love the gleeful expressions on those faces!


Father's Day 2006: The aftermath

I hope you enjoy these, more coming soon!

A brief discussion on "Attachment Parenting"

***Content Warning! Graphic Postpartum details to follow!***
(No, it's not that graphic, but that ought to be enough to scare off the squeamish.

Right after Ebo was born, 14 and a half years ago, TG flew to SeaTac from Anchorage "to see the baby and help out." Naturally, she dragged me out shopping instead. Me and my brand new nursing baby and my swollen 3-Ds and my stitches. I was not happy about this. But this story isn't about that, this story is about the next day when I refused to go anywhere.

I sat there in my green rocker, my sock-clad feet on the coffee table, my 8.9 lb Peanut sleeping contentedly on my chest and my mother across from me on the couch when the aforementioned brief discussion took place.

TG: Aren't you ever going to put that baby down?

Beth: Why?

TG: I just don't know why you want to hold him all the time.

Beth. I like him and he smells good!

I closed my eyes blissfully and lowered my head closer to his precious little head, inhaling deeply through my nostrils.

Beth: Mmmm, new baby! (lip smacking noises) Delicious!

Grinning like the Mona Lisa, I looked at TG. She had a curiously baffled expression on her face and she was shaking her head.

TG: I just don't get it!

And if you don't get it, I can't explain it to you either.

101 things that I believe

1. I believe in God*
2. and the Constitution of the United States of America
3. not necessarily in that order.
4. I believe God loves us and wants us to be happy.
5. We are all children of God
6. and he wants us to come back home when the time comes.
7. I also believe in Faeries
8. and Santa Claus.
9. I believe that God created the Heavens and the Earth
10. through the process of evolution.
11. I believe in love
12. and the power of prayer.
13. I believe in practicing random prayer
14. and kindness
15. and senseless acts of beauty.
16. I believe that capitalism has outlived it’s usefulness
17. as have televangelists
18. and religious zealots of every stripe.
19. I believe in religious freedom.
20. Any path that brings you closer to the almighty is a good path.
21. I believe that love makes a family
22. not necessarily blood.
23. I believe in optimism
24. and self-fulfilling prophecies.
25. I believe in the collective consciousness.
26. I believe in the healing power of humor
27. and sometimes animals and children can have that affect too
28. if you let them.
29. I believe every child has a right to be wanted, loved and nurtured.
30. I believe that happiness is a choice
31. and you can choose to be happy where you are
32. or you can choose to be miserable.
33. I believe that I’ll go to grad school one day.
34. I believe that I can do whatever I set my mind to.
35. I believe that determination is one of my gifts
36. along with tenacity
37. and stubbornness
38. and I might be a little bit obsessive
39. although I understand that too much of anything
40. is a bad thing.
41. I believe the world is flat!
42. BWA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA!
43. Not really.
44. Just keeping you on your toes!
45. I believe my grass is over a foot tall!
46. I bet my neighbors are really pissed
47. especially the republicans across the street
48. because they’re trying to sell.
49. They’d probably also like it if I pruned the half dead bush in front of my house.
50. But I believe in truth in advertising!
51. Not really, I am going to prune it
52. before the grandma gets back
53. or maybe even before their open house on Sunday
54. because I’m just sweet and considerate that way!
55. But I do have to wonder if that has anything to do with why they’re leaving
56. or maybe it has more to do with our dueling yard signs
57. last November.
58. Here I was, thinking they were cool because they have a Harley!
59. Boy, was I fooled!
60. I am easily fooled.
61. I believe my gullibility is an extension of my honesty.
62. Being a truthful person
63. I tend to expect others to be honest with me.
64. I have been mislead
65. and deceived
66. many times.
67. I have been robbed by people I knew
68. and people I didn’t know.
69. I was horrified.
70. It felt like a violation.
71. After about the third time I was robbed
72. over a period of about 10 years, by different people in different places
73. I stopped placing so much value on material possessions.
74. I didn’t miss the stuff so much.
75. But it never stopped feeling like a violation.
76. However, I have also had my purse returned to me intact
77. more times then I can count.
78. This has strengthened my belief in the basic goodness of humanity
79. and the power of prayer.
80. I believe in reincarnation
81. because eternity is a very, very, very long time
82. and heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.
83. We come back because we forget the taste of honey and the warmth of the sun and we wish to remember.
84. When we die, we go to heaven
85. and it’s like a giant reception where we wait for all our people to catch up.
86. While we wait, we determine what lesson we need to learn next.
87. When we’ve waited for everyone we knew
88. we say goodbye again
89. and we come back to learn our next lesson.
90. This is how we choose our path in life.
91. Each time we return to the corporeal life, our purpose for that lifetime is the lesson we chose, the lesson we needed to learn.
92. Each time we die, we go back home.
93. Our consciousness becomes part of the whole
94. The collective knowledge of all our lifetimes is there.
95. To die is to awaken to this knowledge.
96. It’s kind of like, when you’re hearing something for the first time
97. but it feels as though you’ve known it all along.
98. With each lesson we evolve, growing to a new level of consciousness and awareness.
99. Each time we return our lessons to the whole collective, it evolves, growing to a new level of consciousness and awareness.
100. This is how God is also evolving.
101. The Whole is always greater then the sum of its parts.

(*I use the name God although I prefer such terms as The Creator, The Holy One, The Great Spirit and of course, The Force. God as a name for the Most High is, frankly, the least cumbersome for me. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

From the Mailbox: Saving the Internet

I received this request from Move On yesterday to post a link to this in my blog. I agree with the message so I'm spreading the word as best I can. Plus the video is hilarious! I had no idea that Moby was such a funny guy! My favorite part is where he hugs the tree.

Here's a blurb I stole from Move On that explains it pretty well:

"Congress is now pushing a law that would end the free and open Internet as we know it. Internet providers like AT&T and Verizon are lobbying Congress hard to gut Network Neutrality, the Internet's First Amendment and the key to Internet freedom. Net Neutrality prevents AT&T from choosing which websites open most easily for you based on which site pays AT&T more. So Amazon doesn't have to outbid Barnes & Noble for the right to work more properly on your computer.

Many members of Congress take campaign contributions from these companies, and they don't think the public are paying attention to this issue. Let's show them we care - please sign this petition today."

At some point I'll have to do a post on All Of The Ways In Which I Am Not As Crunchy Granola As I Would Like To Be (ahem) but not today. Suffice to say I've been an at&t customer for more years then I'd care to admit and although I love the reliable service, I do think it might be prudent to move over to Working Assets. I wonder if they're still giving away Ben & Jerry's? and what if I want to call Canada? Tell you what, I'll check it out and get back to you.

On a lighter note it should be pointed out that we all seem to have survived another 6/6/06. Of course they had a big party in Hell, Michigan. So, how was your Day of The Beast?

Overheard at the campfire...

One cow says to the other, "Are you worried about mad cow disease?"

The other cow responds...

(wait for it!)

"Why should I worry? I'm a helicopter."

Thanks to B. from the motor city for sharing that one!