Sisters


The other day, I was in the playroom with my girls. Maria, almost 3 years old, was having a great time playing peek-a-boo with her baby sister, Caroline, now 6 months old. I told Maria that I needed to take Caroline away for just a few minutes to change her diaper, and Maria protested, saying, “Mommy, please don’t take Caroline away, she’s my best friend!” Of course, these words melted this mother’s heart, and I imagined all of the fun that they would have together over the years.

How have you fostered friendship between your children? Specifically, how have you fostered friendship between daughters that are close enough in age that competitiveness and jealousy could sneak in? Sometimes, I think the best thing that we parents can do is to step away and let our children create fun together, without our involvement. We’re not quite there yet with our daughters, since Caroline is still quite young, but I have noticed that my children sometimes have the most fun together when I’m not in the same room! I’d love your thoughts on sibling interaction on this Friday morning. Happy almost-weekend!

Mary, Queen of families, pray for us!

Thoughts for Thursday (MaryAlice)

What am I cooking tonight? We are going out to dinner!

What am I reading? Middlemarch by George Eliot, more New York Times lately, very few blogs

What are my weekend plans? We are at The Farm, so my plans include long walks, running, canoeing on the pond, reading, mass.

What are my prayer intentions for the day? My girls have a fever, and I am praying for patience (for me) and a quick recovery, so this does not spoil too much of their vacation time.

What is one product that is making my life a little easier? Ginger Snaps

What am I grateful for? Old friends.

What have I done for my marriage this week? push-ups

What’s challenging me lately? My temperament.  At the same time that we have been discussing temperaments, I have been reluctantly facing up to the obstacle of mine, which is to obsess and brood.  I need to get better at letting things go, but for now, when I am a situation that I perceive as full of conflict, sometimes it is just better for me to drop out and protect my own peace.

What is one task or project on my agenda for the week? Scrapbooking with my kids.  They have chosen pictures from the last three years (!) and we ordered prints, and now we are working on albums.  We will keep working backwards on this project until we get baby books done.

Something that made me think? Shopping at WalMart.  The low prices make many things so tempting, but one of the things that I bought — yesterday — is already broken, and I just always feel so dirty after the experience of shopping there.  Plus, when I do make the effort to shop independent instead, I have to make more trips to stores that are more difficult with the kids and pay more, so the whole thing is confusing and makes me feel kind of ill.  There are very few shops left on the main street of the small town I am visiting, but what mom can resist 25 cents for a pack of 24 Crayola crayons?  Should she?

A Movie, An Article, and Our Temperaments

It isn’t often that I enjoy a movie, particularly when I’m watching it in lieu of a Phillies game.  But on Saturday night Mr. Red and I watched Finding Neverland, and we both thoroughly enjoyed it.  If you haven’t already seen the film, I highly recommend adding it to your Netflix Queue.

And then today I came across an article, The Parent Trap: Art After Children, which was also excellent (h/t to Shannon), and hit upon many of the same themes of Finding Neverland.

“There is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hallway.” In fact, we didn’t have a pram or a hallway, but in the dark watches of the night I would sometimes look at the Maclaren Dreamer buggy in the corner of the tiny kitchen and think, is that it then? Will I have to go and get a proper job and never write again?…

…I remember reading that when the writer Tracey Chevalier had her first baby, someone told her that “every baby costs one book”; she said something to the effect that that seemed fair enough. But we should turn Connolly’s equation upside-down and say that maybe what’s in the pram – breathing, vulnerable life, hope, a present responsibility – is actually more important than good art. It might make us produce less art, but maybe it would be art with the future at its heart.

And we all know that kids and families make for some great writing material.  So even if you’ve never seen Finding Neverland, go read the article.  It’s very entertaining, well-written, and full of some great points.

And now on to the real reason for my post.  One of our readers, Ruth, asked about our temperaments.  Since I know all the builders in real life, I will give my opinion, and you are all welcome to agree/disagree with me in the comments.

Me (Red)–Choleric and slightly Sanguine

B-Mama–Sanguine and slightly Choleric

Kat–Phlegmatic

MaryAlice–Melancholic and slightly Choleric

Juris Mater–Melancholic and Choleric

Tex–Melancholic and Choleric

AWOL–Choleric

Am I right?

A Meal to Write Home About?

At dinner tonight Dash , our 5 year old, exclaimed, “You HAVE to make this meal for Daddy to show him what a good cook you are and how smart your brain is!!”

Let me qualify that by saying that when Mr. Incredible is out of town, as he is this weekend, we tend to lower some standards, especially around meal time. Usually we do a breakfast of scrambled eggs and pancakes for dinner. Tonight, after a rough day, even that seemed to require a Herculean effort. So I put some shredded cheese and canned black beans on taco chips and nuked them in the microwave for 30 seconds and served them up with salad in a bag from Costco.

A meal to show Daddy how great of a cook I am? Maybe not.

But I do think it shows exactly how smart my brain is!

Incidentally, if you are a melancholic perfectionist like myself, please take a moment to read this post by Mary at evlogia for some encouragement.