The inconveniences of life keep you humble, as least that's what I tell myself as I go to my vehicle that only has air-conditioning if you pray really really hard, touch the AM radio button, hold your breath, and sing an old Hank Sr. song.
Tennessee is still humid and hot, even in September, and this vehicular flaw has cramped my style a bit.
Yesterday, for example, my friend and I wanted to go to lunch.
"You'll have to drive," she said. "My husband has the good car... All I have is the 'courage-mobile.'"
That's what we named their van with 300,000 miles without air conditioner, blue accented only by rust. Because it takes courage to get into the thing.
So, there we were, trying to do a cost benefit analysis of whether we wanted to go to lunch enough to justify perspiration and wind blown hair.
We did.
By the time we got to the little cafe downtown where the little old ladies dine, in their hats and dresses, we looked a mess. But I did realize my friend valued lunch with me so much!
We straightened out our clothes, wiped the sweat off our brows, tossed back our mussed hair, and walked right to our table and ordered ice tea.
Together.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
At least they are having fun with it
When David and then Camille came down with the swine flu, we quarantined them off from civilization in our bedroom/bath. Today, when I woke up, I noticed that they had at least started to see the humor in it.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Fun evening
Last night, my husband and I took the kids out for a celebration dinner to commemorate the successful submission of a manuscript to our publisher. (We are co-authoring a book -- out in Fall of 2010 -- written during the year he was in Iraq.)
We drank champagne, ate good food, and had wonderful conversation. My ten year old, who loves reading, enjoys "talking shop" about writing. She has several little books she's written and illustrated, and enjoys talking to actual professionals.
So, last night was perfect for her. But at the end of the evening, the server brought us our fortune cookies -- things I normally leave on the table. Camille, however, grabbed hers and you won't believe what it said.
Of course, we don't believe in destiny as written in edible treats. However, it was a delightful and funny moment in a memorable evening together. Maybe by the time she does get published, her books won't all be about fairies.
We drank champagne, ate good food, and had wonderful conversation. My ten year old, who loves reading, enjoys "talking shop" about writing. She has several little books she's written and illustrated, and enjoys talking to actual professionals.
So, last night was perfect for her. But at the end of the evening, the server brought us our fortune cookies -- things I normally leave on the table. Camille, however, grabbed hers and you won't believe what it said.
Of course, we don't believe in destiny as written in edible treats. However, it was a delightful and funny moment in a memorable evening together. Maybe by the time she does get published, her books won't all be about fairies.
Saturday, August 08, 2009
Close Call
This summer the family is learning Spanish. Because we live so far away from major cities, I’ve not found a suitable teacher and have so far made due with my limited Spanish skills and local resources.“You can get two Spanish books,” I said to the kids as we darted into the library before lunch.
After ordering later at the cafe, the kids pulled out the new finds but there was more than I bargained for.
“Pa-ja..” Camille began reading her Berenstain Bears book which was entirely in Spanish.
“Pajaritos,” I explained. “That means little birds.”
“Abejitas,” she read.
I thought for a moment. “I think that means bumblebees.”
“I don’t get it,” she said. “I can tell from the pictures this book is about his mommy having a baby.”
I looked back at the title. Pajaritos y Abejitas? The birds and the bees?!
She continued, "What do birds and bees have to do with being pregnant?"
David barely contained his laughter as I slipped the book back into the library bag.
After all, I didn’t know the Spanish phrase for “birth canal.”
Friday, July 10, 2009
NRO's BEACH BAG READS
National Review Online does a regular book symposium where they ask some of their contributors to suggest what books to read this summer.
Here are the suggestions from David and me:
DAVID FRENCH
The Strongest Tribe: War, Politics, and the Endgame in Iraq, by Bing West. This is easily the best book I’ve read about the Iraq War. Political histories of the war, which see the crucial decisions as all having come from Washington or from the (relatively) safe havens in the Green Zone, ignore a reality that West cannot and will not: that strategy matters, but even the best strategies only succeed when applied creatively and courageously by young soldiers and Marines province by province, city by city, and sometimes block by block. West keeps one eye focused on the generals and another eye focused on the troops on the line to describe the war as I experienced it during my recent tour in Diyala Province with the 2d Squadron, 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment. Counterinsurgencies in multi-ethnic, sectarian countries require an enormous amount of flexibility and autonomy at the local level, and West is right to pull back from the big picture to show how battalion commanders, company commanders, and platoon leaders fought (and won) the fight in their own sectors.
The French and Indian War: Deciding the Fate of North America, by Walter R. Borneman. Moving from America’s latest war to arguably its first real war as a distinct people, The French and Indian War shows how close we came to following a distinctly different (think French-focused) path. Perhaps the most interesting part of this book is its description of the various Native American tribes not as pawns in a European struggle but as significant power players in their own right, capable of tipping the balance of power — especially early in the conflict. America’s transformation from a series of tiny, struggling colonies to continental power to superpower seems inevitable only in hindsight. As events played out in real time, our history was — to paraphrase Lord Wellington — a near-run thing.
The Rule of Two (Star Wars: Darth Bane, Book 2), by Drew Karpyshyn. I hesitate to let my geek flag fly, but this is NRO, and Jonah has made it a safe space for sci-fi fans everywhere. If you’re like me, and you finished the Star Wars prequels with the nagging feeling that the rebel alliance you unconditionally loved as a youth was — at the end of the day — fighting for nothing more than the re-imposition of a vast EU-style galactic bureaucracy, then this is the book for you. This book (along with the first in the Darth Bane series), traces the “modern” rise of the Sith and casts the Jedi as a sometimes-vainglorious lightsaber-wielding techno-elite. The Jedi command you to deny your human nature (or lose your head), while the Sith go all the way in the other direction and indulge their every desire — so long as it accrues to their advantage. Can’t anyone in the galaxy embrace ordered liberty?
— David French is a senior counsel at the Alliance Defense Fund and a captain in the United States Army Reserve. He recently completed his first tour of duty in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
NANCY FRENCH
When my neighborhood book club finally finished reading Les Miserables, we bought T-shirts with Jean Val Jean’s prison number to commemorate the experience and breathed a sigh of relief. So I almost spit out my coffee when someone suggested our next book, The Solzhenitsyn Reader: New and Essential Writings, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. At 633 pages, it took me a while to crack it open. But when I did, I found it was chocked full of poems, short stories, essays, and speeches, as well as excerpts of novels, memoirs, political analyses, and historical masterpieces. Solzhenitsyn is known for the Gulag Archipelago — which is excerpted — but this book contains lesser-known pieces, such as his autobiographical poem “The Trail,” secretly written in the labor camp without the benefit of paper. Also included is his famous Harvard address, a jewel of a short story called “Matryona’s Home,” along with countless other poignant, powerful pieces. New in paperback, more than one-quarter of the book’s material has never before appeared in English. Rick Brookhiser put it best when he wrote, “Reagan and Thatcher ruled states, the Pope ruled a church. Solzhenitsyn had his pen.”
--
Think Britney Spears, peer pressure, and Twitter are making modern kids sullen, detached, and generally rotten? Think again. Richard Weissbourd’s book about modern parenting trends places the responsibility for kids’ moral well-being squarely where it belongs — on the parents. In his book, The Parents We Mean To Be: How Well-Intentioned Adults Undermine Children’s Moral and Emotional Development, the lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education talks about popular parenting techniques such as being “positive parents,” focusing on self-esteem, and praising our kids excessively.
And the shock is? He’s against these things.
Weissbourd’s countercultural parenting advice suggests that parents’ intense focus on their children’s happiness actually makes kids less happy, that excessive praise stunts character development, and that “over-parenting” can turn children into “fragile conformists. Additionally, he challenges the “self-esteem” craze — the belief that if parents bolster their kids’ sense of self, they’ll invariably turn out to be good people. This is the first time in history that people have succumbed to this backwards idea about morality and explains that bullies, delinquents, and gang leaders often have the highest self-esteem.
I was fully prepared to read his book to figure out why other people’s kids were throwing popcorn in the movie theater, but every chapter challenged my own parenting.
It’s a meddlesome book, in other words. One you should definitely pick up.
Here are the suggestions from David and me:
DAVID FRENCH
The Strongest Tribe: War, Politics, and the Endgame in Iraq, by Bing West. This is easily the best book I’ve read about the Iraq War. Political histories of the war, which see the crucial decisions as all having come from Washington or from the (relatively) safe havens in the Green Zone, ignore a reality that West cannot and will not: that strategy matters, but even the best strategies only succeed when applied creatively and courageously by young soldiers and Marines province by province, city by city, and sometimes block by block. West keeps one eye focused on the generals and another eye focused on the troops on the line to describe the war as I experienced it during my recent tour in Diyala Province with the 2d Squadron, 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment. Counterinsurgencies in multi-ethnic, sectarian countries require an enormous amount of flexibility and autonomy at the local level, and West is right to pull back from the big picture to show how battalion commanders, company commanders, and platoon leaders fought (and won) the fight in their own sectors.
The French and Indian War: Deciding the Fate of North America, by Walter R. Borneman. Moving from America’s latest war to arguably its first real war as a distinct people, The French and Indian War shows how close we came to following a distinctly different (think French-focused) path. Perhaps the most interesting part of this book is its description of the various Native American tribes not as pawns in a European struggle but as significant power players in their own right, capable of tipping the balance of power — especially early in the conflict. America’s transformation from a series of tiny, struggling colonies to continental power to superpower seems inevitable only in hindsight. As events played out in real time, our history was — to paraphrase Lord Wellington — a near-run thing.
The Rule of Two (Star Wars: Darth Bane, Book 2), by Drew Karpyshyn. I hesitate to let my geek flag fly, but this is NRO, and Jonah has made it a safe space for sci-fi fans everywhere. If you’re like me, and you finished the Star Wars prequels with the nagging feeling that the rebel alliance you unconditionally loved as a youth was — at the end of the day — fighting for nothing more than the re-imposition of a vast EU-style galactic bureaucracy, then this is the book for you. This book (along with the first in the Darth Bane series), traces the “modern” rise of the Sith and casts the Jedi as a sometimes-vainglorious lightsaber-wielding techno-elite. The Jedi command you to deny your human nature (or lose your head), while the Sith go all the way in the other direction and indulge their every desire — so long as it accrues to their advantage. Can’t anyone in the galaxy embrace ordered liberty?
— David French is a senior counsel at the Alliance Defense Fund and a captain in the United States Army Reserve. He recently completed his first tour of duty in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
NANCY FRENCH
When my neighborhood book club finally finished reading Les Miserables, we bought T-shirts with Jean Val Jean’s prison number to commemorate the experience and breathed a sigh of relief. So I almost spit out my coffee when someone suggested our next book, The Solzhenitsyn Reader: New and Essential Writings, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. At 633 pages, it took me a while to crack it open. But when I did, I found it was chocked full of poems, short stories, essays, and speeches, as well as excerpts of novels, memoirs, political analyses, and historical masterpieces. Solzhenitsyn is known for the Gulag Archipelago — which is excerpted — but this book contains lesser-known pieces, such as his autobiographical poem “The Trail,” secretly written in the labor camp without the benefit of paper. Also included is his famous Harvard address, a jewel of a short story called “Matryona’s Home,” along with countless other poignant, powerful pieces. New in paperback, more than one-quarter of the book’s material has never before appeared in English. Rick Brookhiser put it best when he wrote, “Reagan and Thatcher ruled states, the Pope ruled a church. Solzhenitsyn had his pen.”
--
Think Britney Spears, peer pressure, and Twitter are making modern kids sullen, detached, and generally rotten? Think again. Richard Weissbourd’s book about modern parenting trends places the responsibility for kids’ moral well-being squarely where it belongs — on the parents. In his book, The Parents We Mean To Be: How Well-Intentioned Adults Undermine Children’s Moral and Emotional Development, the lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education talks about popular parenting techniques such as being “positive parents,” focusing on self-esteem, and praising our kids excessively.
And the shock is? He’s against these things.
Weissbourd’s countercultural parenting advice suggests that parents’ intense focus on their children’s happiness actually makes kids less happy, that excessive praise stunts character development, and that “over-parenting” can turn children into “fragile conformists. Additionally, he challenges the “self-esteem” craze — the belief that if parents bolster their kids’ sense of self, they’ll invariably turn out to be good people. This is the first time in history that people have succumbed to this backwards idea about morality and explains that bullies, delinquents, and gang leaders often have the highest self-esteem.
I was fully prepared to read his book to figure out why other people’s kids were throwing popcorn in the movie theater, but every chapter challenged my own parenting.
It’s a meddlesome book, in other words. One you should definitely pick up.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Hello from Hawaii
Chris Cillizza just wrote,"Let the search for a new champion for fiscal conservatives begin!" in response to Gov. Sanford eliminating himself -- in a rather dramatic fashion -- from the 2012 Presidential race.
Well, Chris, I think we know just the guy.
On a more uplifting note, we are in Maui! This is the view of where we are staying.
After the kids' luggage took a scenic tour to Tokyo, it has arrived today! But not after we had to buy them new clothes here. Nevertheless, having a wonderful time and are about to go get sushi!
Well, Chris, I think we know just the guy.
On a more uplifting note, we are in Maui! This is the view of where we are staying.
After the kids' luggage took a scenic tour to Tokyo, it has arrived today! But not after we had to buy them new clothes here. Nevertheless, having a wonderful time and are about to go get sushi!
Thursday, June 18, 2009
DAVID ON MICHAEL MEDVED TODAY
Michael Medved has invited David on his show today to discuss ADF's Center for Academic Freedom's activities on the religious freedom front.
Interestingly, David invariably has these media appearances and I'll ask, "What are you going to speak about?"
This means, obviously, "what specific case is the topic of the day?"
Always a smart aleck, he thinks this is an absurd question, since he always is speaking on religious freedom on college campuses. So when I ask what he's going to speak on, he makes it up.
Once, it was the benefits versus the detriments of free trade coffee. Another time it was whether Adam Lambert would beat Kris Allen. Today?
Before he left for his 6 a.m. flight, I drearily asked him, "What are you going to talk about?" And he said, "the auto bailout."
To find out the real answer, tune in. Find your station here.
Interestingly, David invariably has these media appearances and I'll ask, "What are you going to speak about?"
This means, obviously, "what specific case is the topic of the day?"
Always a smart aleck, he thinks this is an absurd question, since he always is speaking on religious freedom on college campuses. So when I ask what he's going to speak on, he makes it up.
Once, it was the benefits versus the detriments of free trade coffee. Another time it was whether Adam Lambert would beat Kris Allen. Today?
Before he left for his 6 a.m. flight, I drearily asked him, "What are you going to talk about?" And he said, "the auto bailout."
To find out the real answer, tune in. Find your station here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
