mathmom's blog

Talking with Amanda the other day, she said to me, "I think leadership is overrated.  I'm planning on being a follower instead."  Thinking of followers succumbing to peer pressure and doing dangerous things, sort of like lemmings going over the cliff, I managed to ask noncommittally, "Oh, really?" So she explained.  If there are too many leaders each trying to go in a different direction, you get chaos.  What she was going to do was to find a leader who made the most sense, and follow that person and help him or her be more successful.  If there came another leader who was better, she would move to following that person. It is definitely true that there are more people (for example) working at a company than being CEO, and so it makes sense to prepare to follow people you believe in and follow them well.  It is definitely true that at her elementary school where everyone believes him or herself to be a leader, there is a lot of chaos.  I did not te...

I am tired of picking the couch cushions up off the floor.  It seems as though they are ALWAYS there.  I never actually see anyone throwing them on the floor, I just move them from the floor to the couch and they end up back, mysteriously, on the floor. Today I mentioned that fact to Amanda and Luke, and asked, "How are the couch cushions always on the floor?" Amanda: "It's as though they are attracted to the floor, somehow." Luke: "It's called gravity." Right. =)

When I was in college or grad school, I actively rejected repeating myself.  When the cashier at the coffee shop knew my order, I got something different.  I sat at different places in the library, moved to different study locations, had different things for lunch, walked different ways home. As I got older, though, time seemed to start moving faster.  When the kids came along, they really needed things to be the same every day or their lives would be uncomfortable (for them and for me!).  And we moved from doing the same things every day (nap schedule, dinner schedule, bed schedule) to the same things every week (piano, soccer, orchestra) and now the same things every year (Apple Festival, Christmas trip, sign up for spring soccer, plan school for next year).  And the years keep flying by. Part of me worries that the reason things are speeding up is that I am doing everything the same so that one week is a repeat of the previous week.  On the other han...

A long time ago in a town not so far away, Michael and I got our first waffle iron.  As I recall it was a wedding present from our friend Jon, or maybe a Christmas present.  But, since it was a piece of equipment like our fondue pot (from a cousin) and a sandwich maker (no idea) it mostly languished in the appliance garage above the refrigerator. Later on we occasionally made waffles the old fashioned way from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook: milk, flour, beaten egg whites, milk, 1/2 cup oil.  They were good, but a pain (getting out the mixer to beat the egg whites? cleaning the waffle iron?).  We made them enough so that the first waffle iron fell apart and we bought another one (a Belgian style one, which was OK, but I preferred the square one). Fast forward a few years.  We have always had "breakfast for dinner," in fact, we did it so regularly that one time one of my kids told me, "Did you know that some people have PANCAKES for BREAKFAST?!?" ...

Luke got a new library card last week.  I'm not really sure what he needs it for: it's not like he ever goes to the library without me and my card.  Even if he did, he doesn't carry a wallet or even have pockets most days, so he doesn't have anywhere to put his library card.  Even if he did use his library card, he has no way to look at what his library books are and renew them online. But when he got his card he picked it up in both hands, holding it gingerly, and his eyes glowed.  He was clearly thrilled.  Makes me glad we have libraries around, still.

Yesterday I was feeling a little down and overwhelmed.  I was talking about the silly things I worry about at dinner and I mentioned one of them: "What if I ruin my children?" Without missing a beat, Eleanor jumped in with, "Too late, mom." Well, I guess I can cross that off my list of things to worry about.  Isn't it good that we have children to cheer us up? (In case anyone is curious, Eleanor wins the "Most Likely to be a Stand Up Comic" award in our family.  Although, come to think of it, the competition isn't very stiff...)

For many and various reasons I do all our laundry in one day. The biggest problem with this is that you get almost finished with the laundry... And then take off your dirty clothes and put them in the hamper. This adds to the sense of futility that makes laundry a chore. Michael and I occasionally joke about "laundry nirvana," the state when all the laundry is done and put away in the same day it was started. One day we had made good progress and were on our way to achieving laundry nirvana. Eleanor offered to draw a commemorative cartoon showing me in the lotus position, levitating amidst piles of folded laundry. We had a good laugh, and then Luke asked, "would you actually float?" I looked at Michael and he said eerily, "no one knows." I added, "it's never actually happened. Laundry nirvana might actually lead to the end of the world. Anything could happen." This led to a discussion of "The 9 billion names of God," and other apo...