View from the Prairie Box

1. Favorite ice cream combo (think Coldstone or sundae)
2. Favorite non-breakfast item to eat for breakfast
3. Favorite dip
4. Favorite thing to dip
5. Favorite of all Mom/Dad’s homemade meals
6. Fast food or restaurant you’d miss most if you had to move
7. Best foreign food
8. Best fondue
9. Favorite summer fruit
10. Favorite thing to eat off the grill
11. What you’d eat right now if you could

I am munching on Saltines and a banana as I surf this morning because I’m slowly healing from a nasty virus where the bathroom and Gatorade were my best friends. I know where I got the dreaded bug from (thanks, Cutlers!), so I was prepared in advance, at least as prepared as one can be for such things, for the 24 hour onslaught of illness. It has been a long time since I have felt so horrendous! I apologize in advance to the numerous family and friends I may have infected and, in the meantime, I offer this advice: stock up on Gatorade and find childcare if you have little ones at home. Jeremy has been an exemplary husband — two solid days of baby-caring and wife-tending. He and Livia got in some good quality time. She seemed kind of disappointed when he left for work this morning. Anyhow, happy days are here again! I can surf. I can eat (sort of). And today’s sky is blue.

I love this pic of my Dad and Livia. Hope you like it, too.

Is it wrong to leave your baby in her very full and very stinky diaper while she’s happily and independently playing on the floor and you’re enjoying surfing the web and reading your email?

(Note: After this picture was taken, this “the playgym’s eating my baby” picture, I realized the little gym was just too little for my big baby.)

Is anyone else still hooked on this show? The premiere last week found me a little glossy-eyed. I’m not sure I was ready for two hours of new teams running the race since the last show ended only three weeks earlier. And yet, I’m strangely and utterly addicted to this program. It’s not your average reality program (trust me, I would know)—it’s far better.

Contestants I’m rooting for: Rob and Amber. Well, so far I’m cheering them on. I tend to support teams that are fun, friendly and honest, and Rob could be pushing the envelope on the honesty ticket. I know that tons of people hated him all through Survivor, but I loved the guy. And even though he kinda lied to fellow racers last week, he charmingly winked at the camera, so all is forgiven in my book.

There are a lot of new shows on tv right now. But is any of it really worth watching? Let me know if some new gem has escaped my notice. After 8pm (baby bedtime) I’m a free woman.

Sunday was one of those amazing it’s almost spring in Nebraska days where the outdoor thermometer hit 70-something degrees and the sky was an incredible shade of blue. It was just what I needed! Jeremy and I spent a little time in the afternoon raking leaves off our front lawn, then later I went over to my parents’ house where I snapped this picture. My folks moved to a house on Spring Lake several months ago. So far the chilly winter temps have kept us indoors, but on Sunday we were able to enjoy the lake a little more. The beauty of that day is keeping my soul content as we experience highs in the 40’s this week. Ah, Nebraska! The state of rapid temperature change. One day you could be luxuriating in 70 degrees and the next your yard could be blanketed in snow. To quote one of our fight songs:

There is no place like Nebraska,
Where they’re all true blue.
We’ll all stick together,
In all kinds of weather,
For Dear old Nebraska U!

Dear Livia,

Hey, big kid! Today you are ten months old—and I can’t believe this day is here already. It’s no big deal when adults get older, but every month in your life makes a huge difference. I see you growing and changing almost before my eyes. Yesterday, in fact, it seemed like you actually looked older than the day before!

This past month your personality has made its presence known. Your eyes are indeed windows to your soul—by them I can tell what kind of mood you’re in. They light up and squint a little when you’re mischievous; they go completely round and slightly dull when you’re overwhelmed; they wear heavy lids when you’re getting sleepy. You have beautiful eyes! You also vocalize your moods… Happy noises and giggles quickly give way to coughs (which you sometimes use as fake-y cries) and sad “da-das” when you’re frustrated or irritated. You’re talking up a storm these days with more vowels and consonants than ever.

You’ve developed an eye for detail, which means that zippers, buttons, earrings and eyeglasses enthrall you. Your “go go Gadget” arms can pull off Daddy’s glasses faster than a speeding bullet (wow, two pop culture references in one small sentence!) so Daddy has been working hard to teach you “no.” I am profoundly entertained by the way you grab at his face like it is putty… You’ll pinch at his eyebrows and attempt to grab his eyelids. You like to stick your little fingers up his nose and rake over his mustache. Potentially painful but also very funny! You love to smoosh your face up against ours and press your little open mouth upon our cheeks. We’d do anything for these sweet kisses! You’re also a champion hugger now, holding my neck tightly with one arm and patting my shoulder with the other.

A few weeks ago, after I put you down for a nap, I wrote this in your journal. It still rings true:

When I hold you, I hold the world in my arms. You are all potential, existence of a spirit bound by skin and bones. You can be anything. You are everything. You are the world in baby form. How proud I am of you.

Happy ten months, Livia Raine! May God bless you as you grow.

Love,
Mama

I have never heard of anyone *tasting* music. This story simply fascinates me.

I think I’ve posted this photograph before, but it speaks to me today of everything I love about spring and warm weather. Green grass, warm sunshine, going for walks in beautiful locations…. Mmmm. Sounds lovely! Fortunately, we’re having nice weather today. I intend to get outside a bit and rake up those pesky winter leaves on our lawn. But still, I can’t wait for the warmth of spring. I’m envious of my fellow bloggers from Chattanooga and New Orleans!

When a woman says she’s a “stay-at-home” mom or a fulltime homemaker, what automatic judgments do you make? If you’re anything like me, you think soccer mom, homemade cookies and frumpy clothes. It sounds ridiculous for a homemaker like myself to admit such things. But truthfully, it’s what I think. Or rather, it’s what I used to think.

My previous notions about women and motherhood are being twisted and turned in their definitions. It’s not that I ever consciously thought negatively about this position; in fact, I have wanted to become a mother for my entire life and I greatly valued the things mothers accomplished. Well, sometimes I valued them. Other times I assumed (and we know what assuming does right?) that stay-at-home moms had easy lives. After all, how hard can measly chores like washing the laundry and the dishes be? And really, we all know that moms drop the kids off at school, then eat ice cream and watch television all day long. Right?

Um, no. Big N-O. Life as a homemaker is nothing like that.

I am far from a financial planner. It takes all my strength and energy to plan a budget and figure out savings accounts. However, all the talk recently about the future of Social Security made me realize that I am foregoing my Social Security benefits by being a stay-at-home mom. As in, I’m building up NOTHING for my future retirement (for a moment, forget the possible perils of future benefits for everyone, not just me) while working at home to raise children. Somehow this doesn’t seem fair!

If I paid someone else to watch my daughter during the day, then worked as an early childhood teacher in a daycare or as a housekeeper for a cleaning service or as a professional drycleaner or as a lawn care worker for a yard service, then I’d be deemed worthy of Social Security. If money exchanged hands, I could show that I was contributing to society in a measurable fashion. If I hired someone to do the tasks I’m expected to complete by being at home (feeding, bathing, diapering, teaching my child; doing the laundry; cleaning the house; caring for the yard; shoveling walkways), then the paid worker would receive Social Security. But wait…! Isn’t the rearing of children, those responsible for paying for the future retirement of us all, isn’t that something important on a national level?

Food for thought. Chew it over. Respond with your ideas.