Graceful Parenting in Austin

This was going to be my Christmas Day post, an essay that was published in ParentWise: Austin this month, which normally wouldn’t take a long time to post, since it was already written, except I had a stomach bug, Noel had allergies, Baby Girl didn’t want to sleep at all and we ran out of diapers…. so this is my day-after-Christmas post about my time as Santa’s saddest Christmas elf…

The T.V. ads say I should want diamonds or a Lexus, but all I really want is a clean burb cloth…

This was going to be my Christmas Day post, an essay that was published in ParentWise: Austin this month, which normally wouldn’t take a long time to post, since it was already written, except I had a stomach bug, Noel had allergies, Baby Girl didn’t want to sleep at all and we ran out of diapers…. so this is my day-after-Christmas post about my time as Santa’s saddest Christmas elf…

Blue Eyes, Noel and I were at the Avis counter renting a minivan for our Christmas drive to Memphis when we heard a loud thud. I turned around and saw Baby Girl’s car seat on the floor next to a chair, top side down. My mind raced, with visions of how hurt she could be under there, not pictures with details, just an awful, terrifying feeling that something was really wrong…

August Rush makes me feel like hitting myself on the head with a hammer because that would be more fun.I went to see August Rush with Blue Eyes and Noel the other day. This is a movie about a young orphan boy who believes his parents really do love him and want to be with him and he can find them by playing music they will hear.How can I be against a young orphan boy finding his parents? Well, for one thing, this really isn’t a movie, it is a really, really long music video.For another thing, the movie uses lighting and background music to develop characters…. The story requires a lot of imagination and it isn’t for mythical creatures or wild special effects, but for believing what the regular humans say and do.Was there nothing to like?When I closed my eyes and listened to the music, it wasn’t so bad…. Movies are a line item in our budget, the same as rent and groceries.So the hammer to the head isn’t about the movie so much, it is about how the movie makes me feel, it is about the BIGGER thing the movie is about, which is just how much compromise does a family need?

I review books, movies, music and random other things (called Something Else Reviews) on Graceful Parenting now and then. I don’t try to provide a professional, objective critique of the subject, with commentary about the dual plot lines of subjective angst or the “melding true-school beats with an array of instruments while conducting liturgical crooners and ghetto divas”. There are professionals out there that know how to do this better.I want to give just a hint of the flavor of the material, so you can decide if you want to read, see or hear it for yourself. I’ll focus on how it makes me feel, which usually involves telling a story, since that is more interesting that an straight-forward summary.Comments, suggestions and objections to reviews are always welcome!

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I feel like the holidays are a time to pause, reflect and renew, to step out of the everyday routine to really love how I wish I loved all year round.

Well, if that is true, then how come all I feel is busy, busy, busy and I run around, tripping over the cats, losing my keys and forever focusing on my mental list of all there is to do? Love? Really? What’s love got to do with it?

But, I’m trying to take the holidays back…

It’s not that I don’t like how I look, I think I look just fine, but a strange thing happens when I get in front of a camera…like a ghost turns invisible or a con-man gets nervous, I’m funny-looking in pictures. Even with a professional photographer and over seven hundred digital images, I can’t find one that looks like what I think I look like…. If just woke up after a bad night’s sleep while having the flu, she would smile sweetly at the camera and look great…. When I see the camera, I think, “oh, no, a #$%$#% camera, this picture will certainly look bad.”I’ve been trying Noel’s approach, but I think this must be a learned skill, like Buddhist mindfulness, because I haven’t seen immediate results…. For fun, here are some others she took with my funny-looking faces…And some of Noel’s more artsy side…

A good friend of mine, just thirty-four years old, tore an artery leading to her brain while flying on a trapeze.