Now that school is in full swing I have less and less time to read even though my job requires me to read and be current. Plus I am spending all my other “extra” time working for DMC/the Obama campaign making phone calls, drumming up support for this once-in-a-lifetime intelligent candidate!!! It confuses me when I get such angry people on the phone. If someone called me to talk about John McCain I would simple tell them how much I like my candidate. The people I call seem angry about their candidate. They don’t want to discuss him or their own views they just are mad, which is too bad because a good debate could follow but instead they close themselves off to any new light coming in. I want to say to them (these angry people on the other end of my phone) “don’t be so angry-I didn’t call and yell at you” Common decent human feelings seem to escape the opposite party at this time I guess. Still the work continues and we will all rest after November 4, we hope with all of our hearts.
Author: peacefulreader
red flag Olympics
I am over the Olympics already and really, they have barely begun. I realize this is a slightly un-American viewpoint-but that’s part of the problem to me. I am mad because it is China, saluting China and all their human rights errors. I am mad because it gives G.W. Bush a platform to be all “he, he, he, I am the president of the greatest nation in the world and if those Chinese would just get religion all would be better for them!! and shame on Russia for all that naughty violence…!! more he, he, he’s” I even think Bob Costas couldn’t believe rambling Mr. Bush. And my third complaint against the Olympics is that it really isn’t an even playing field. Some countries can afford to pay their Olympic athletes, some cannot, some practice under extreme condition like the swimmer who has been training without an Olympic size pool. I just don’t think the smaller countries come out ahead. Well, and the fourth thing is what a lot of money for pomp and look-at-me fireworks…the money spent on the opening ceremony alone could have brought good feng shui and food to many Chinese workers.
These is my words…
I must be on some kind of history kick this summer. After reading Hattie Big Sky my mother-in-law (another book lover) recommended These is my words by Nancy E. Turner. It is done in a journal format and really explored what it must have been like for a woman in the Arizona/New Mexico Territories when Tucson was just becoming a town. I loved the book but hated all the anti-Apache sentiment that goes with this time period. Like trying to read Little House on the Prairie to your children and all the horrible “red-faced Indian” conversations that take place between Laura and her family. In These is my words though I really loved how the main character, Sarah Prine grows as a character. After many run-ins early in her territory history with angry Natives (and we know they are angry for good reason!!!) she grows to trust a particular Indian that has helped her husband. Even when she is the recipient of prejudice because of this friendship she sticks by it and welcomes the man into her home and misses his help when he is gone.
mmmm good books
Just finished an amazing YA (Young Adult) book by Kirby Larson recommended by my friend, Tina. Hattie Big Sky made me cry, real sobs at how the book ends because I was so involved, I loved her character. I especially loved how it mirrored our societal problems of today. WW II is in full swing and prejudices are running high against Germans living in the United States at that time. Anything German is considered anti-American…hmmm…seems so current with our lovely US after 9/11. Funny how history continues to repeat itself over and over when we don’t learn to be more accepting of the world. Bless the whole world and especially Barack Obama and his family in their continued efforts to raise the bar on dignity and grace.
Iowa -2008Children's choice
I just finished the lovely book, Singing Hands by Delia Ray, an Iowa author. This book opens up the world of Gussie as she struggles with two deaf parents and the difficulties of growing up as a preacher’s daughter as well in the 1950’s. The book catches Gussie at her most vulnerable as she tries to find her path out of living always on the straight and narrow. She hums during her father’s service, she spends money meant to go to the church and she hungers after a friendship that brings her nothing but misery. Of course, she finds her way out with the help of her parents and the two ladies who room with the family. You will have to read the book to see the delightful manner in which she begins to figure out who she really is…
sweet daughter
What do you say to your child when they just want to eat dinner naked!!!
I mean it is a great expression of freedom and I love that my five-year-old loves
to be naked but suddenly I might have a thirteen-year-old boy wanting to do the same and
I think dinner might turn into anarchy even for our family!!
So I pose the question again, What do you do when your 5 year-old wants to eat dinner
naked??? Because my answer caused a huge flood of tears, luckily she recovered in about 15 minutes.
Peace like a river
This is a book I’ve been meaning to read for several years and I loved the characters. Leif’s tale just trots along taking his reader on an unexpected journey through one moment in their lives. Life is like that where one incident can overshadow all other expectations for a person. We see it today in the crazy debates about Obama’s patriotism, wearing a lapel pin or not.
South Dakota
We’ve already taken our one big summer road trip vacation and it was great. We traveled across the state of South Dakota, site-seeing along the way. We saw the Corn Palace in Mitchell, a great Sioux museum in Chamberlain and of course, Mt. Rushmore and the Crazy Horse carving, which was fascinating even though it wasn’t finished. Even as a work in progress it has an extensive museum attached and was very informative and the kids loved it and well, isn’t that what we are aiming for when we set off on these long voyages in the station wagon!! It certainly isn’t the fancy motels or the screaming in the back seat. At the Crazy Horse museum I purchased a book called Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog. Combining work with play I read it throughout the rest of the trip. Very good read about how our ancestors continued to be cruel to our original Native population through the 60’s and 70’s. Of course, most of us really smart people already knew that but this book helped me see just how senselessly cruel we were and are still probably. I of course grew up wanting to be a Native American…I wanted to belong to a tribe…I loved our family trip to Pipestone. And now I know that at the same time I was wanting to be an Indian, Indians were being subjected to awful abuses on their own small reservations. I recommend the book for anyone who wants to learn more about the Sioux Nation history including Leonard Peltier.
With all my ramblings I didn’t even get to all the fun we had in Denver, CO for the second leg of our journey!!
Traveling
We had an amazing trip to Madison, WI for Memorial weekend. We explored the large Madison farmer’s market Saturday morning, which was amazing-so much local food in one place!! I was in some kind of shopper heaven yet I couldn’t really make any grand purchases because i didn’t have a portable ice box with me. We had a great brunch at an Irish pub with Sean. We shopped on State St. and found a lot of hippie stores. We met up with Sean and Jared for dinner also and had a fantastic Indian meal. And that was all in one day!! We did spend some quiet time in our cozy super 8 motel, which had a heated and open outdoor pool. We spent Sunday in the famous and very campy “WI Dells” and were blown away by the size of the hotels and water parks!! We did play a fun game of miniature golf.
Tristan and I both really loved Madison and will be excited to go back.
Parenting
It is really difficult to be a parent today. It is a wonderful experience and I cherish my children but they really can drive me crazy!! We seem to be in a negative, cranky mode right now and I need to find a way to lift us all out of it. I wish there was a magic food for that. Maybe it is time to put quiet meditation into practice. Last night before I feel asleep I visualized turning cable off for the summer so we could build with legos and dance outside.
Peaceful Reader 