Not One CNY Event This Year

We missed the last event that was held Saturday. Makes me sort of sad; however, G plays basketball every Saturday in the middle of the day. Then I have another head cold which makes me feel like warmed over roadkill. G scored two baskets and they only lost by 4 instead of 40 like the first game against this particular team. In that respect Saturday was awesome.

G and I decided to try out a new recipe Saturday afternoon. That's right, we made the cats some treats. Literally, in the making of these so called treats there were many screams and dances and declarations of I wish I had a dad here today; because you see, I am not a cook. I dislike dead things that can still be identified. Enter the can of mackerel. Did you know it doesn't come like canned tuna? I didn't. So imagine my utter shock of horror to discover the headless, finless gutted bodies (skin on) of the fish flop out of the can. I jumped and screamed and danced around the kitchen with the omg omg omg whatamigonnado hands and G exclaimed she wished she had a dad to handle dead fish.

To declare this treat making a disaster would be to bestow much kindness upon me. I declared it an abject and total failure in the why did I think this would be easy and enjoyable category. My Sunday school class got a laugh over it. In the end, however, I dumped all of the mixture. And my house stunk like fish even at 4 a.m. when I though I had eradicated the smell via a tea egg China spice mixture. Oh and the cats, for whom the treats were made? They hated them. One cat even threw what she did eat back up.

I suppose this will be one of the future funny stories we will sit around and talk about when I am older.

Anyway, the CNY packet I gave to G's teacher had been forgotten. I wish her teacher would use it but I didn't really give her a great heads up about it.

Good News

G's hand is better and will not have to be amputated as the crying Tuesday night may or may not have suggested. Just kidding, about the not being amputated part, though it doesn't. For such a generally stoic kid who wishes most of all to blend into the background, those anticipatory melt downs are over the top in drama. Last night as I doctored her hand, I made an agreement that she would wait to scream if it hurt only after I left the room. And I remembered bactine, oops. That may or may not have stopped the tears on Tuesday.

She can dribble the basketball too, so we lost no actual function for the important things in life. Washing our hands, putting on socks without bending knees, holding pencils for homework or pulling pants up or down is still on the I-can't-do-because-my-hand-is-injured list. Now why the legs won't bend due to a palm of hand scrap? I couldn't even begin to guess.

Oh and due to still being hurt she had to sleep with me. And today is a holiday so she is planning to sleep with me tonight too and always on Friday (because it is the weekend of course), she said she will return to her bed on Monday if she doesn't get sick or hurt again.

This morning we had no tears or arguements and when I pointed out out much better the morning went I asked if we could have that every morning. She said that she couldn't decided because in December she would have to spend time looking for Candycane, our elf. So apparently she is thinking pretty far ahead in the plan the morning routine.

Rough Day

G had a rough day yesterday. While playing at school she was accidentally tripped and cut her hand on the sidewalk. It hurt her so badly that she cried and everybody could hear her. She said, "mama, it hurt so bad I just couldn't hold it in." This is really big for G. She NEVER cries in public like that for fear of embarrassment. So last night she said she would have to sleep in my bed because I told her "when she was 6 or something" that if she were sick or hurt she could. Then as we prepared for bath the drama truly started. I had to change the band-aid.

For shower time it had to be a water proof one. It was then that I could really look at the spot and realized that her hands were not clean and the spot was really red. I told her we would have to wash her hands really good which brought hih pitched, ear splitting cries that had you passed by our open window, you would have thought I was cutting her hand off.

Oh and to be sure, I didn't actually get to clean the wound itself but I did get all the rest clean. Then I put a glob of neosporine on it with a waterproof band-aid that covers the palm of her hand. Then she asked how was she supposed to write or dribble a basketball? She also can't hold a fork or button her jeans. And yes, though the cut may hurt, it is still just a palm scrap requiring nothing more than a band-aid.

G may not be "girly-girl", but I defy anyone to show me a much more dramatic child than she. And while in the midst of it all I reflect back to the Disney frog princess where Ray is pulling the brickle briars out of the Gator among all the drama he says, "I haven't even touched you yet."

G and Basketball

G had a bball game this weekend at my parents church. We are excited that she is on a team that is not the worst but only the third worst out of a total of 4 teams. The all girls teams are 2nd through 6th graders because there weren't enough 6th graders to make a team. I understand that but it seems G's team has the most 2nd and 3rd graders with the other teams 5th and 6th grade heavy. Each sports team G has been on has been almost the worst in the league so it is becoming a family joke. My mom told me that losing builds character. I am ready to give G a break in the character building department for at least one season. Sadly G didn't score this game but she played some awesome defense. The referees can't catch everything and missed G getting knocked down by the bigger girl guarding G but they caught the small foul G committed. G has a big bruise on her knee. But the girls did win and are now 1 and 2 until this Sat when they will drop to 1 and 3.

I am glad this is a learning league but G is pretty good at knowing how to lose gracefully. I am ready for her to learn some graceful winning, heh. I was very proud of her though defending so well.

After the game we headed to what I thought was a big Rembrandt exhibit. It ended up being 1 Rembrandt and 1 Rubens with 70 other paintings from 1300s to 1800s. I saw some paintings I had originally seen in Europe which was fun. The museum I feel displayed some of the religious pieces with a distinct anti-religious bias. That was fun to navigate with G. There were also some interesting photos held up as worthy art but objectively speaking only 2 were beautiful. The rest were just weird. And yes art should be viewed both objectively and then subjectively. That is for another post all together however. Too much to do on the fire.

Seaweed and Other Conversations

This morning after breakfast, as all mornings, G asked for her seaweed snack. The seaweed we currently have left is actually wasabi flavor, so you know it is hot.

G said,"Mama, do you want me to teach you how to eat this seaweed so it doesn't burn?"

I declined. Of course that didn't deter her. She proceeded to explain that she doesn't swallow her spit. I know, you were eager to hear that answer.

So after I had left the kitchen to get dressed, G just didn't seem to be coming along in a timely fashion. I headed out of the room to find her, running into her in the hall. I asked her what took her so long to which she replied, "I taught the left side of my mouth how to eat seaweed."

All rightly then; now, apparently, G's whole mouth knows how to eat wasabi seaweed.

time for a book review:

William Tyndale: The Man Who Gave God An English Voice by David Teems
Great book that tells the story of 1 Bible translator in the time of our history when control of the people by the official church resembled current day I*slam. The medieval church's control of governments helped create and enforce laws preventing the Bible from being read, studied or interpreted into the language of the common man or from the Vulgate. Doing so resulted in death by fire. This was the fate of William Tyndale.

After leaving the country of his birth during the reign of Henry the 8th, never to return, Tyndale spent his life on the run. David Teems does an excellent job of allowing us to peep over the shoulder of the translator as he works. Teems brings into the story how diiferent players in the court aided the reformation and supported the translators. Anne Bolyen was one such supporter who gave to Henry a copy of one of Tyndale's (now an outlaw) books.

I am constantly reminded through history and current examples how religion has never been man's answer. Religion will always be used by humans to enslave other humans. No, the answer is a relationship with the Creator God, through JESUS' death on a cross, guided by the Holy Spirit. Tyndale's goal was to give English speakers the ability to know his God just as close as he himself knew Him.

I received a free copy of this book. Opinions are 100% mine and I have never been one not to share.

Weird Response to Wikipedia

Okay, so not really but to some information on there. A bit of background, G has a book and now a movie on Gladys Aylward. Gladys was a British missionary to China at the time of the Japanese invasion. She was also the paid foot inspector of the country side in her area at the time when foot binding was outlawed. Cultural or not, barbaric actions taken against women, really toddlers at the time. So obviously we have had some intense conversations around foot binding. G constantly says how glad she is to not have had her feet bound and how happy she is that she isn't still in China just in case they tried. So last night I had the brilliant idea to show her what it was all about. At some point there was a video of an elderly woman whose wealthy family continued the tradition and bound her feet as a child after the ban. I didn't succeed in finding that video but I did find the wikipedia site.

I showed G the old photos and then I started reading about the procedure and how they did it. Then I started feeling woozy and extremely ill. Never mind that this was historical information only and I wasn't actually witnessing or participating in it. I almost fainted from reading it only. G was a bit confused and concerned but wanted to know if I had any nightmares about it. I didn't but the ill feeling took a bit to fully subside. So just a warning, wikipedia can cause illness, or at least the info found there can.

Like slavery in America's history (and that which is still going on) foot binding is a blot on China's history and mis-treatment of women. Humans sure can find the most barbaric ways of injuring each other and justifying it.

Oh and have I mentioned lately that I really do love my fire? I do my blogging here and can upload photos too.