I know, the kids have been out of school for quite the while now, haven’t they?

Everybody is definitely starting to get on each other’s nerves, and I know many of you have already suffered through weeks of horrific heat.  Things are just starting to really heat up where I am, and all I can do is look at my husband and exclaim, “HOW DID ANYBODY LIVE WITHOUT AIR CONDITIONING? HOW?!”

So I present to you a song that is almost guaranteed to lower your blood pressure by a few points.

My husband, who prides himself on being a male who does not insist on always seeing the latest special effects-laden move fare, managed to be persuaded by my silver tongue to see Beasts of the Southern Wild.  Every review I’d read about it said it was fantastic, and the only theater playing it in our area was a half hour away.  Still, I prevailed.  I haven’t been with this man for over twenty years without knowing how to persuade him to see a damn movie.  If you can’t persuade your significant other to see the movie that you want, then you might want to rethink your relationship.

Anyhoo.

I sat and watched the move, entranced as the story of Hushpuppy unfolded.

I glanced at my husband, and his eyes were closed and he was ready to fall asleep.

Nothing a quick elbow to the gut didn’t fix.

When we got out of the theater, I could feel the resentment emanating from him.  The whole “that was two hours of my life I can never get back” thing. When you persuade someone to see the movie that you want to see, you also have to be prepared in case that someone loathes it.

But instead of being an understanding spouse, I decided to go on the offensive.  He loves New Orleans and the bayou (the little that we have seen of it), so what was the problem?  The actress who played Hushpuppy was cute as a button!  He has a daughter, could he not empathize at all with their relationship? Did he have an issue with the little girl being a strong female protagonist?  Did he disapprove of a lifestyle different than his own?

After a few rounds of questioning, and some valiant attempts to validate his opinions, he decided to just allow us to agree to disagree.

Smart man.

And in the end, Christopher Nolan is still our favorite director, so I’m thinking we’re still right for each other.

What’s that, you say?  I wasn’t here Friday or yesterday?

Well, you can blame my computer for that.  Even though it isn’t that old, there was something wrong with the cooling system and we had to get it fixed.

Boo.

Anyhow, 55% of you say that the best meal you ever ate was in a restaurant, and I would have to agree.  I was lucky enough to be able to enjoy a dinner at the famed Club 33 at Disneyland (thanks, Marc!) for our 3rd wedding anniversary.   Not many people get to go up a French lift to get to their meal. And man, it was good.  My flat iron steak was tasty, but the memory I have of the cheese course still makes my mouth water.

And now, with summer breathing down our necks, I want to know what you think about cruises.  A friend of mine recently took her first cruise with her husband and son, and has already signed up for their next one.

Sad, isn’t it?

Sure my daughter likes to pretend to feed her dolls, build amazingly tall block towers, and terrorize the neighborhood in her Cozy Coupe, but no toy evokes the frenzied response of an addict quite like the Kindle.

It has been quite disconcerting to observe the ease in which she has figured out all of the electronic devices in our home.  She was doing things on my cell phone that I didn’t even know it was capable of doing.  And far too easily she learned how to slide the little arrow over to unlock the Pandora’s box that is our Kindle.

Of course there is nothing bad on it, as it is primarily for our son, but I can’t help but think I am somehow neurologically altering her by exposing her to the Kindle.  That I am betraying thousands of years of evolution just to make my life a little easier.

But it is sometimes the only thing that will keep her sitting in one place for more than five minutes.   And I have to admit, it isn’t a foolproof method either, as I found out at our year end meeting with our homeschool educational advisor.  I don’t normally take her to my son’s educational meetings, but this time I had no choice, and it turned out badly for all involved.  When the advisor turns to you and tells you that she will be praying for you and your strong-willed daughter to get through this difficult period, it definitely gives you pause.

Maybe I am the one who is addicted to the half hour or so of quiet that I get when she sits with the Kindle.

If there’s a 12 Step program for it, I’ll be the first to sign up.

But for some reason, I think I’m not the only parent who cheats a little with the ease of today’s electronics.

Well, if I’m wrong, then just go ahead and lie in the comments to make me feel better.

I would totally have asked a question of Moonlighting-era Bruce Willis.

Original source: Rookie

During the recuperation period from my surgery, I am not ashamed to admit that I read some Young Adult Fiction.

The Hunger Games, to be precise.

I had bought the e-book versions because a) I am a geek, b) I just had to know what all the fuss was about, and c) I was sort of hoping that the Munchkin would be able to read them also.  And any writing that falls into the YA category is vetted by me personally before he gets to read it.  I don’t think he needs to stumble upon some description of two teens having sexual relations at the age of 9.  There will be plenty of that in the years to come, I’m sure.

Uh, OK, I was just really distracted by that last sentence and reminded of my friend who has vowed never to talk to her son about sex.  Ever.  She cannot wrap her mind around the fact that our sons will be hitting puberty sooner rather than later.

Anyhoo, I burned through all three books in about four days, between snoozing sessions.

And now, pathetically, I cannot wait to see the movie.

Yeah, all the 14 year olds and I will be lining up at midnight.

And here I thought I had escaped all that by not reading any of the Twilight books.

So my son wants a television in his room.

Never mind that we only have one television in the whole house. He seems to think that he deserves to have unlimited access to all of his favorite movies.

At least he is smart enough to realize that we would never allow him to have all the cable channels we have on our main TV, and has instead asked for the type of set that has a built-in DVD player. He would have to have a cable box to watch any regular television, and there is no way we are paying for that.

I have to say that part of me is tempted, and then there is another, louder part of me that says no way should a nine year old have a television in their room. Although I know many, many children that are both younger and older than him that do.

I wonder if I am getting soft in my old age. If my toddler is wearing me down so much that a request for a television doesn’t seem totally outlandish.

What say you about kids and televisions in their rooms?

I personally think it is bad enough that he stays up past his bedtime reading books.

I think it would break my heart if he took to watching television instead.