Colic

While researching colic I came across this tidbit that I found amusing. I think you should know:

"Historically, and until recently colic was often treated with paregoric, a camphorated tincture of opium, but this practice has largely discontinued."

Haha. Just drug the kid to get them to quit crying. Thought you should know.

Today's thoughts.

Lately these are some of the thoughts that have been floating around in my head.

I have found some insanely wonderful music that I would love for you to love with me. Maybe enough of us love him he will come to the US. His name is Maksim Mrvica. He is a Croatian pianist. He makes me wish I had practiced more when I was learning how to play piano.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DKBKZ8Cxeo

As I have come across what is some really good classical music lately, I sometimes stop and think about why I don't like so much of it. I wonder if it is just me or if other share my opinion. Frequently when I listen, a lot of pieces sound to me like exercises for violinists or harpsichordists. Not real music. Just seeing how many random notes can be put together to challenge the musician. There is lots of beautiful classical. Those happen to be the ones with a real melody.

Another thing on my mind is how incredibly awesome some children's books are. There are some really amazing authors out there. Next time you are in a library or book store look for the Little Critter book by Mercer Mayer entitled "I was just so Mad." He is so good at capturing children. There is also a relatively new author named Judith Byron Schachner, her books are called "Skippyjon Jones." They are hysterical. Her charactor is a siamese kitten who is convinced he is a chihuahua. He has a fabulous imagination. Her books are littered with Spanish vocabulary words. I HATE Dora. This however makes it so fun to learn a Spanish word here or there. http://www.skippyjonjones.com/ Such fun books.

This is the less exciting thought that keeps going through my head. When we are raising children we teach them to say sorry when they do something wrong. Saying sorry is a good thing to do; however it seems hypocritical, to me, to force them to say sorry when they are obviously not. I have told Naomi to quit doing something for the 500,000th time and she looks at me and nonchalantly goes, "Sorry mom" . She has said sorry ever other 499,999 times. Obiviously it isn't something she is sorry for doing. I feel as though having them say sorry when they don't mean it seems to take away from the meaning of the word and thus they use it flipantly. Maybe it is just my kids. It just seems wrong when they are standing there grinning at thier accomplishment to tell them to apologize. I will take them aside and discuss why it was wrong and try to figure out how to fix it. Don't get me wrong my kids do get disciplin. I just want Sorry to mean something.

I also want you to know that I made pizza dough with two little helpers. That meant that food coloring was needed. Yup, we had green crust pizza for dinner tonight. I bet your jealous.

Preying on the Elderly.

My husband manages two car rental franchises. He has been doing so for quite a while. The other day he got the best phone call he has ever received at work. I thought it was quite an interesting story and am quite proud of him. I am also grateful for the little old lady that called him. I thought you might enjoy this story.

In order to rent a car you must have a credit card. You can not decide nothing bad will happen while you have the car, things just happen sometimes. They need security to pay for any thing that goes wrong. If you don't have a credit card you MAY be able to rent on a debit card, though that is much much harder and MUST be tied to a bank account.

He receives a phone call a little over a week ago with a woman who tells him this, " I know I don't have good credit. I don't have a credit card or a debit card."She does claim to have a prepaid debit card.

If you haven't thought it through previously- you can NOT rent a car with a gift card. It is not a good idea to let someone drive off with $16,000 vehicle and only have a $200 gift card for collateral. Some people just don't come back.

So she informs him that she desperately needs to get to Wheeling W.V. (if you are unaware it is a going to a gambling town. Someone with admitedly bad credit should not be headed there.) She must get to a fancy restaurant. Ethan tells her if she wants to have the car she must get someone else to rent the car for her. She immediately responds that she will go call her mother-in-law. She is then informed that her mother-in-law MUST call Ethan first and then he will explain everything to her. Ethan has done enough of these rentals. They always go wrong. He doesn't want to deal with this woman. Advice for life- do not rent cars on anyone else's behalf. You will be held responsible. It never ends well.

So this elderly woman calls him. Ethan is doing everything he possibly can, with out actually telling her that he won't do the rental, to convince her it is a bad idea. Mom says "That's not how she explained it." So she goes to go talk to the daughter-in-law. Mother-in-law calls back because daughter-in-law is telling her contrary to what Ethan has told her. Finally Ethan says to her,"Ma'am, I have been in this business for nearly 10 years. I have seen a lot of these kinds of rentals and they always end badly. This does not feel right. " She says thank you and hangs up. Daughter calls back rather ticked off because mom has decided not to help her out. She is frantically trying to convince Ethan to call her mother-in-law back and sugar coat it so she will help her out. Ethan says, "I have told her what she needs to know and I will not call her." That is the end of the conversation.

A week goes by. He gets a phone call from a little old lady. It turns out to be the mother-in-law. She says, "I just wanted to thank you for not allowing me to rent that car." Her daughter-in-law is now in jail. They think she wanted to rent a car for a get away vehicle after she broke into someone's house. Her parting comment was, "If there were more people like you in this world, it would be much safer for us senior citizens."

I was so proud. He is such a good man. I am glad I have him and that he will stand up when he thinks something is wrong.

World's greatest husband.

Ok in the most recent post I mentioned my cardio kickboxing class that sounded fun but that I was only going to take one class at a time. Just got off the phone with Ethan and we realized those classes are months apart and the kickboxing class doesn't interfere with any thing. So he said "go enjoy your class." So Woooohooo!! Starting kickboxing on the 27th! More excitement.

My calling in life.

A few months ago I was busy agonizing over what it is that I would like to study. My husband laughs at me when I say I am not a particularly passionate person but I seriously couldn't think of any field that interested me enough to actually study. There are lots of things I would like to just suddenly know. Physics would be cool, but I am not going to spend hours studying it. Astronomy cool to know, not going to spend my time trying to figure it out.

My local college sends out a catalogue of non credit courses they offer. Last time I took a class on making pies. That was kinda neat. Now I feel like I can make really good pies, without tons of effort. I sit there and stare at the list of classes thinking "I could take that one, and that one, this one would be neat, oh look at this one." However due to funds, kids and only one car I am only going to take one at a time. I found my class. I am so ridiculously excited! There was a cardio kickboxing class I was pretty sold on, but this one just feels so right.

"Grow your own seasonings/ Grow your own medicine."

In this class we are going to talk about:

• which seasonings go with which kind of dishes
• learn to grow, harvest and preserve herbs
• make " Herb de Provence" ( I haven't the faintest idea what that is.) Herbal vinegar and herbal butter
• become familiar with herbs to grow or buy to make simple medicines
• see, touch and smell medicinal herbs and learn how they have been safely used for hundreds of years.
• Hands on demos and projects making "tinctures" ( Don't know what that is either, but I am excited),teas, salves and poultices

We even get a "light herbal snack". Whatever that will be. Sadly it is only two nights long. But I am pumped!

This is it. I have found it. I want to know plants. I want to know how to USE plants. I want a monstrously large garden where I can put food away for later. I want to make my own medicines. ( Safely yes, I am not just stopping dealing with Dr's) I am so sad that this doesn't start until May. That seems so far away! I am such a nerd.

So to sum it up, my life is

• God
• husband
• kids
• extended family
• serving people
• being self reliant, by knowing plants and how to use them.

Someday you will all come to me needing my help. And since I like people I'll help you.

World's finest chef

I am not a fabulous cook. Working on it, but not someone anyone is going to say " Vanessa made it so it MUST be great!" I have decided that unless you are truly self motivated- the key to becoming a good cook is to have someone who likes food to cook for.

My dad must have been THE hardest human being to cook for. He would eat what ever you gave him and if asked what he thought he would say "It's ok." No matter how much he loved it or hated it. He would never really tell you what he thought. Maybe he just didn't have taste buds any more. When I was nearly 17 I remember him finally fessing up that rice gave him heartburn and had for nearly 6 years. Come one, if it gives you a problem- mention that to the cook. Seriously my mom lived in Japan for 18 months rice was a pretty big ingredient in our house. If it pains you to eat- SAY SOMETHING! Anyway...moral of the story. Due to my dads blatant lack of passion about food my mom never really became a great cook. How hard are you really gonna work to impress someone who doesn't even like food? No wonder we had spaghetti ( from a jar) so often.

My husband however LOVES food. Especially garlic and all things you can put garlic into. In the nearly 7 years we have been married my cooking skills have surpassed my wildest expectations of myself. I try new recipes, mess with old ones, make up a few more. I find it astoundingly satisfying when he enjoys a meal- because he SAYS SO. He tells me when he enjoys it, what part he likes, what he thinks could possibly even make it better. Because he gets excited about cooking that makes me have a whole lot more incentive to be ever more impressive. When someone says "This is tremendous!" you feel so much better than "It's ok." Who would you rather cook for?

So deep down I firmly believe that a huge portion of cooking drive can come from those who you cook for.

Recent happenings at our house

• Naomi cut her hair, astoundingly well. It is kind of hard cause I look at her now and I think wow those bangs are cute. But I don't want to encourage her to ever do it again so I don't want to compliment her, maybe when she's 19.

• We played Chutes and Ladders last night. Ethan managed to hit the big slide that takes you back 60 spaces. Then he managed to spin a 27 and then a 36 and somehow managed to beat Victor to the end. Someday my kids will catch on that dad is cheating. I had a hard time not cracking up over it.

• Phebe sleeps in about 3 hour increments. That is doable. Though I will never complain when babies sleep for more.

• The kids were given a set of Walkie- Talkies. It is rather humorous to watch them stand near each other and yell into the contraption. I don't know if what they say is ever broadcast, but they think it is great fun.

I can't really think of any other exciting things right now, though I am sure that there are. Those are my thoughts of the day.