I've struggled to get to church with the kids since they were babies.  My faith is important to me and it's a gift I want to share with them.  DD loves going- loves the music, the dressing up, the getting to have some quiet time.  DS?  Not so much.  Which leads me to my problem.  He truly doesn't care that it matters to me and, at 6, I can't say that surprises me too much.  But this morning, after working really hard to try to get us there, I just gave up.  He flat refused to put his clothes on, whined and cried screamed until it was too late for us to leave.  When I tearfully announced that he'd won, that we couldn't go, he was happy.  Openly, clearly happy.  

I write for (part of) my living.  Typically I write personal and narrative essays and the like, on educational themes.  Today, though, I've had this burning need to get this other thing on paper.  Normally, I'd have gotten it down and started sending it to my normal publishers, but this is different and I wouldn't even know where to begin publishing it and I'd like some feedback on it and well...my experience has been that, if I don't get these things out in the world when they come to me then they evaporate and I  see them elsewhere later on.  It may sound crazy, but I really believe that God or Allah or some other thing whispers these ideas in my ear sometimes, and that there's a "do this or I'm going to get someone else to do it" urgency to it.  So here it is.  Hopefully, I'll be able to sleep tonight.

I have to admit- it's wicked scary to do this this way.  

My son is 7 and a bit socially awkward, so I feel like it's important for me to try to get him into social situations whenever I can.  DH and I have enrolled him in some sport or activity every season and those group situations are fine. But I've always avoided the kid-on-kid playdate.

Like many of us, I've been following the story of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints in Texas.  I feel like I'm more connected to the story because earlier this year I discovered Escape by Carolyn Jessop and Laura Palmer.

I know it's Super Bowl Sunday and all, but I was watching Michelle Obama speak on C-Span when -- Maria Shriver showed up to the rally! Did any of you see that??? It looks like she has broken with her husband and has publicly endorsed Barack Obama! What a bomb. Okay, I am off to find Caroline and Oprah's speeches, which I missed. -Elisa

Everyone knows I'm a Barackophile- but have you seen this?

http://www.moveon.org/...

It's this music video thing from YouTube- it rocks. Or, one might say, it Ba-rocks.

(heh)

Does it feel like this is a more stylized, MTV election than ever?  I read some place that it was because of the Writer's Strike- that people who would normally be focused on television programming have turned their attention and talents towards the election. I hope folks will give Obama a good hard look if their minds still aren't made up.  (Though, with this crowd, I doubt that's possible...)

I find myself luxuriating in the plethora of goodness right now on the DNC side.  Isn't it wonderful to be looking at both candidates as excellent choices rather than facing another "lesser of two evils" situation?  Good times, I tell you- good times...

Omigod, Laura, I can relate. Ari and Eli were both up last night at 4 a.m., laughing and giggling together. Let me assure you, this is NOT cute! I especially pleaded with Ari to go back to sleep. Not surprisingly, we were late to school this morning and I was in a foul mood. Ugh. Yes, any advice is greatly appreciated! Elisa

I know that sleep issues are mundane, trite, over-discussed and impossible to solve, but holy squash, if I don't get some sleep soon I'm not going to be responsible for my actions.

Went to the doctor today for my weird pregnancy-but-not symptoms.  Turned out the only one I could see was the one who delivered DD 4 years ago.  I hate the man.  Really.  I hate him.  Not that he was bad in the delivery room (he actually rocked, told the nurse to stop trying to make me lie on my back since I was obviously not going to do it and her nagging was just making us all crazy), his stirrup-side manner is just cold and distant.  Plus he does lyposuction on the side and that just skeeves me out.

But I digress...

So I could be pregnant.  Or not.  I mean, I'm on the pill, but missed a few when I had stomach flu in nearly November.  I also took diflucan in November, which could interact with my pill, but could not.  And I was late by a few hours on my pills a couple days late in the month.  I don't have a period because I'm on Seasonale (which I love) but I'm spotting a little (which is something that's only happened when I was pregnant the first two times) and to tell you the truth...I'm ambivalent.

I put pickle relish on my grilled cheese sandwiches. My grandpa did and, as a kid, I liked liking something that he liked too. I make stuffing from my mom's recipe for the same reason. I take naps during football games because having the game on reminds me of my dad. I feed birds and grow tomatoes and flowers (especially peonies) because my Grandma does. I can't imagine how many other things I do on a daily basis not because I would naturally do them on my own, but because people I love did them first.

So right now, as I do the Christmas preparations, I look at my kids and I wonder- what random habit will they pick up because DH and I do them? Will they make a big production out of getting the tree (ritually rejecting the first 3 simply because it can't be that easy), or over-decorate cookies to the point that no one over the age of 10 will even eat them? I guess no one gets to pick what they hand down. If they did, I can't imagine that pickle relish would have been the thing my grandpa would have picked.

So what about you?  What was handed down to you?  And what do you think you're handing down?

So great to see another presidential candidate addressing the issues of working mothers. I just read a Q&A with Barack Obama in Newsweek and was impressed. Thanks for writing your impressions of him, Laura! -Elisa

On Monday, I had the most amazing experience of my political life.  Somehow (the details are a mystery to me), I was selected to be part of a 8 member panel meeting with Barack Obama to talk about the issues of working women.  I was invited on Saturday (I was in Denver at the time), vetted Saturday night and Sunday, and Monday at 1 I found myself standing with 7 other very nervous women at a local chocolate factory, waiting to meet the man himself.

DS is in first grade and has so far done pretty well.  He's freaky smart (multiplying two digits in  his head, adding three sets of three digits, doing addition and subtraction of negative numbers, etc) but his social skills are weak, to say the least.  I blame it partially on his early years- DH was a SAHD and they had very limited opportunities to interact with other kids since most of the moms in playgroup tended to assume he was looking for a little action on the side rather than just looking for a playdate.  Mostly DS has been blissfully ignorant of his lack of skills- moving happily between groups of kids, not noticing that most didn't seem thrilled to have him join their groups.  But today his sister (4) got her third birthday party invitation in 2 months and the lightbulb switched on- he doesn't get invited to birthday parties.

My niece is 16.  Smart girl, big plans to go to college, lots of potentional, loving parents, but growing up in a family that just couldn't catch a break.  She went out with some new friends, had too much to drink (first time), had sex (again first time) and got pregnant.  Her family was disappointed but supportive.  Their perspective (after Alice made her choice) was that every life should be greated with excitement and joy and they were bound and determined not to mourn the birth of their first grandchild, no matter the circumstances.  They were also committed that this wouldn't be the end of their little girl's life- she would still go to college and they'd support her in whatever way they needed to.  (For the record, they examined all the options and the hurdles- emotional and logistical- around termination were just too steep.  I have to respect that because, in my opinion, that's the definition of choice.)