Be Nice to Your Mama
Stop me if you’ve heard this: Vice President Dick Cheney shoots his hunting companion.
Man, the Bush administration can’t catch a break. I will be tuning into “The Daily Show” tonight. Between Britney’s baby fiasco and Cheney’s “Hey Bubba, Watch This” moment… Jon Stewart has weeks of material.
Anyway. I do not follow any organized religion, I do believe in the basics… love thy neighbor, forgive thy enemy, don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t steal, be nice to your mama, don’t worship celebrities and don’t kill anyone unless he aims to kill you or your kin first.
That said… “the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work…” [Ex. 20:8-10].
So, one of my New Year’s resolutions was to really bust my butt on Saturday and get the errands and the chores done… divide and conquer. And if it doesn’t get done on Saturday, it doesn’t get done. And it forces me to prioritize. So that on Sunday… I do nothing but the things I want to do… relax… spend time with the monkeys… watch a movie… go for a hike. Whatever. And this weekend it finally worked.
Right around the holidays, I had an epiphany. I looked around my house and took inventory of its contents… and I took an even harder look at my life. And I live a life of excess… and it has gotten out of control. From the sheer amount of hair products in the bathroom to the toys in the kids’ room to the small appliances in the kitchen to the countless gadgets and thingamajigs that clutter my life.
Maybe to some it sounds like an infomercial… or a vow to spring clean. But it is neither. It is about making a conscious decision every day to not fall prey to marketing and advertising and buy things I simply do not need. First things first—the clutter. Every weekend I have gone through one room in the house and really assessed the contents. Does everyone in the family need their own shampoo and/or soap? No.
And right now I am in the process of weeding out all of the crap food in the house. I no longer buy processed foods. I read an article in the New England Journal of Medicine raising concerns about the hydrogenating process so many foods go through before they hit the shelves in your local supermarket. These processes have been linked to all kinds of digestive cancers and illnesses, and heart disease. A good rule of thumb—if you can’t pronounce more than five ingredients, you shouldn’t eat it. That rules out about 75% of what is on a grocer’s shelf. And it forces us to get back to basics.
Growing up, my mother cooked every meal… even when she rejoined the workforce. We ate every meal at home, or we brought our lunch to school. As kids, we knew to be home by six. Everyone sat at the dinner table. No TV in the background.
We didn’t have a microwave until I was a teenager… and when we did get one, we used it to heat up mom’s leftovers… not a Lean Cuisine.
And that’s where we are finally at. After months of wondering how I could do it, I have. I am a working mother and wife. I get home at six every night. But I have managed to go without fast food for six months and convenience foods for two months now. We are all healthier for it. We don’t typically sit down to dinner until 6:30 or 7… but we turn the TV off and make a point to do this.
My family life isn’t perfect. Far from it. But when I look at all of the crap on TV. And in magazines and newspapers and the Internet… simplification makes up for less-than-perfect.
For the kids… no TV during the week and no TV after 10:00 a.m. on the weekends. Same goes for the adults. We don’t turn the TV on until we are in bed… and then we read or watch the news.
We sit down to dinner. Every night. No matter what.
Maybe, if the American people could step back and re-buy into the lifestyles of our parents and grandparents… maybe we could turn the Titanic around.
Eating together will do wonders for your children. Eliminating the amount of hair products in your bathroom will do wonders for your sense of accomplishment. Taking Dick Cheney’s rifle away will do wonders for innocent bystanders. And turning the TV off will do wonders for our country.
Except for “The Daily Show” after a member of the Bush administration f*cks up… again.
THAT is quality entertainment.
Man, the Bush administration can’t catch a break. I will be tuning into “The Daily Show” tonight. Between Britney’s baby fiasco and Cheney’s “Hey Bubba, Watch This” moment… Jon Stewart has weeks of material.
Anyway. I do not follow any organized religion, I do believe in the basics… love thy neighbor, forgive thy enemy, don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t steal, be nice to your mama, don’t worship celebrities and don’t kill anyone unless he aims to kill you or your kin first.
That said… “the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work…” [Ex. 20:8-10].
So, one of my New Year’s resolutions was to really bust my butt on Saturday and get the errands and the chores done… divide and conquer. And if it doesn’t get done on Saturday, it doesn’t get done. And it forces me to prioritize. So that on Sunday… I do nothing but the things I want to do… relax… spend time with the monkeys… watch a movie… go for a hike. Whatever. And this weekend it finally worked.
Right around the holidays, I had an epiphany. I looked around my house and took inventory of its contents… and I took an even harder look at my life. And I live a life of excess… and it has gotten out of control. From the sheer amount of hair products in the bathroom to the toys in the kids’ room to the small appliances in the kitchen to the countless gadgets and thingamajigs that clutter my life.
Maybe to some it sounds like an infomercial… or a vow to spring clean. But it is neither. It is about making a conscious decision every day to not fall prey to marketing and advertising and buy things I simply do not need. First things first—the clutter. Every weekend I have gone through one room in the house and really assessed the contents. Does everyone in the family need their own shampoo and/or soap? No.
And right now I am in the process of weeding out all of the crap food in the house. I no longer buy processed foods. I read an article in the New England Journal of Medicine raising concerns about the hydrogenating process so many foods go through before they hit the shelves in your local supermarket. These processes have been linked to all kinds of digestive cancers and illnesses, and heart disease. A good rule of thumb—if you can’t pronounce more than five ingredients, you shouldn’t eat it. That rules out about 75% of what is on a grocer’s shelf. And it forces us to get back to basics.
Growing up, my mother cooked every meal… even when she rejoined the workforce. We ate every meal at home, or we brought our lunch to school. As kids, we knew to be home by six. Everyone sat at the dinner table. No TV in the background.
We didn’t have a microwave until I was a teenager… and when we did get one, we used it to heat up mom’s leftovers… not a Lean Cuisine.
And that’s where we are finally at. After months of wondering how I could do it, I have. I am a working mother and wife. I get home at six every night. But I have managed to go without fast food for six months and convenience foods for two months now. We are all healthier for it. We don’t typically sit down to dinner until 6:30 or 7… but we turn the TV off and make a point to do this.
My family life isn’t perfect. Far from it. But when I look at all of the crap on TV. And in magazines and newspapers and the Internet… simplification makes up for less-than-perfect.
For the kids… no TV during the week and no TV after 10:00 a.m. on the weekends. Same goes for the adults. We don’t turn the TV on until we are in bed… and then we read or watch the news.
We sit down to dinner. Every night. No matter what.
Maybe, if the American people could step back and re-buy into the lifestyles of our parents and grandparents… maybe we could turn the Titanic around.
Eating together will do wonders for your children. Eliminating the amount of hair products in your bathroom will do wonders for your sense of accomplishment. Taking Dick Cheney’s rifle away will do wonders for innocent bystanders. And turning the TV off will do wonders for our country.
Except for “The Daily Show” after a member of the Bush administration f*cks up… again.
THAT is quality entertainment.
posted by Cgdbird at 15:03
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