I love these bags.
I love carrying tons of groceries in just a few sturdy totes.
I love not having wispy plastic bags floating around my kitchen.
I love the idea of reusing bags vs. simply recycling them.
I love always having totes on hand for trips to the library, Target, or even quick runs around the grocery store (no cart needed!).
I love the price tag of these bags in particular.
Apparently, along with her Papa, Livia watched some program with a depressed main character. Three times on the drive home that night I heard my three year old say, “I’ve got THE BLUES.” It was kind of late at night, so I asked her what having the blues meant.
Livia: It means I’m sad.
Me: Why are you sad?
Livia: I so tired.
Me: Alrighty.
My child is still my favorite English Language Learner…
Liv: Mom, what my new jammies called?
Me: Nightgown?
Liv: Oh yeah. Nightgown.
Jeremy to Liv: You’re such a kidder!
Livia: What “kidder” mean?
And then I got a kick out of this conversation yesterday…
Jeremy: If you do [naughty behavior], then I’ll have to take away your favorite toy.
Livia: My favorite toy?
Jeremy: Yes, your favorite toy.
Livia: [thinks hard] You mean Baby Soap?
Jeremy: [working hard to keep from laughing] Yup, Baby Soap.
This blog vacation business is far easier than I thought it would be. But my blog is getting kind of sad, in a purely emotional sense, and it’s time for me to come back… at least a little bit.
I have yet to write about the dawning of spring—glorious and delightful spring!—in Lincoln, Nebraska. Several weeks ago we experienced many days of unparalleled temperatures. It was sunny and warm, relatively speaking, and Livia and I took walks every day. But then the skies grew gray once more, we were bound by four walls again, and poor Liv struggled to understand why we couldn’t go outside to play. (Clearly, frigid temps mean nothing to my little person.) Slowly over the last several weeks something amazing, albeit a yearly event you think I’d get used to someday, occurred. It was two steps forward, one step back with warm days and cold days and somehow, in all kinds of ways, spring arrived at our doorstep. Our grass is green, our viburnum is unfurling adorable fuzzy green leaves, and our child is dropping like a rock by 7:30pm from all the fresh air play.
To me, spring is more than a season of sunshine and blooming daffodils. I find deep joy and renewal in sitting on the porch and watching the neighborhood come alive with activity. My heart actually rejoices when the sun’s rays are warm on my cheeks and the breezes are lightly cool against my bare arms. Though I began this day with angst and frustration in the hidden corners of my heart, I found God’s grace and glory freely given to me in every hour. And at the conclusion of this beautiful spring day, I’m reminded of this passage in Psalm 16:
LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;
you have made my lot secure.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.
- The days are getting warmer, not to mention longer.
- My speedy computer is on the fritz.
- My three-almost-four year old requires a lot of attention.
- I feel like I’m updating my blog to keep up with something or someone (the Joneses?).
- I haven’t written anything of substance in quite some time–not good for a writer.
- My blog posts are hardly representing my life right now.
Sound like time for a blogging hiatus? I think yes.
I hate it when other people take breaks from blogging. And I also feel kind of dumb announcing a break only to pick up the habit a few days later. But I’ll take that chance and trust that my online friends will patiently await my return. Just so you know, you’ll have full permission to laugh at my break if I show up with a new post tomorrow afternoon.
Hasta luego.
In three words, two nouns and a verb to be exact, what did you do today?
Here’s mine:
Our Mac Mini is giving me all sorts of grief. Considering it’s the computer that operates at the speed my brain works, it’s the only one that functions well for blogging, in my snobby opinion. I upload pics on this one and do all my blog-checking and news-reading here. In the few moments I’ve blogged this entry, for example, the Mini has behaved itself. I consider myself lucky at this point.
All this to say blogging will be slow for a bit, at least until we’ve solved the problem on this computer. I hate to say anything negative about Macs because this is the first problem I’ve encountered on a Mac in four years. And only the second in 10 years of Mac usage. Anyhow, I hope to be present here more fully in the days ahead.
Me: [Just arriving home from a meeting.] Sweetie, did you and Liv eat lunch?
Sweetie, er, Jeremy: Yeah, a little bit.
Me: What does that mean?
Jeremy: We had pork and pretzels.
Hm.
If you’re going to the market to buy some juice
You’ve got to bring your own bags and you learn to reduce your waste
And if your brother or your sister’s got some cool clothes
You could try them on before you buy some more of those
Reuse, we’ve got to learn to reuse
And if the first two R’s don’t work out
And if you’ve got to make some trash
Don’t throw it out
Recycle, we’ve got to learn to recycle
[3 R’s by Jack Johnson, Curious George soundtrack]
There’s a fine line between hoarding and recycling, and I’m relieved to report that we ended up on the recycling side after finally making a trip to one of Lincoln’s many recycling bin locations. We’ve recycled pop cans for a long time, but that’s only because our neighbor faithfully collects and returns them for cash. In vain I believed I need a beautiful recycling system, one that fit in with my kitchen decor (LOL). Finally Jeremy pushed us to recycle and off we went, with Jeremy often rescuing items I had thoughtlessly tossed in the trash.
By the time we had created Mount Trash (in the pic above), I was amazed by how much of our trash we could recycle. Newspapers, cardboard boxes, plastic bottles, even plastic pill bottles, milk cartons, mixed paper, so on and so forth. We still need to purchase more black bins from Target, but now we’re well on our way in this little venture of the 3 R’s.
**Note to parents: The Jack Johnson Curious George album quoted above is fantastic listening for entire families. It’s the only CD checked out from the library that I really wished I owned. And soon, thanks to Amazon.com, I will own it. : )
I feel like it’s been a crazy-three-year-old kind of week, the kind where I’m ready to collapse into bed shortly after she does. I’ve had a few days where choices varied from “should I rest or bathe?” to “should I go to bible study or clean the house?” The remedies for a tired and cranky mama have certainly perked up the week though. The joys include beautiful warm afternoons where a wee bit of gardening refreshed my soul, coffee and conversation with friends, movies like Dan in Real Life where I don’t have to think too hard but can laugh out loud, and chats about books and life with my husband. Oh, and there’s this:
After rubbing her head fiercely against my stomach, Livia informed me that her friend Halle at school “do dat” and “it cracked. me. up. [followed by great laughter].” I wasn’t aware Liv knew that vernacular, which in turn cracked me up!
Yesterday Bobby (one of Liv’s quints) was taken for a walk and we needed coats to ward off the chill. Today it was Nanny’s turn and we stripped down to short sleeves. Hallelujah–spring is on its way!
Hi, I'm Rebecca Tredway. View from the Prairie Box is my blog about my life, my family, and more…