it's a recurring theme in my life that i fall in love with things i was once totally turned off by. examples: mushrooms, nonfiction and jesse.
there are of course exceptions to this pattern, but learning to embrace new and previously written-off things has been a big theme in my life lately. broadening my horizons feels great.
here is a sprinkling of things i once swore off but am recently finding myself gaga for:
t-strap sandals. i once thought these were far too dainty and fancy for me. but now i love them and may have 4 pairs of them. this pair is my sauciest departure from my normal footwear proclivities. they are from loft, bought with a 40% off coupon, naturally.
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snow peas or snap peas or whatever you want to call these little podded wonders: i have always wanted to like them but couldnt get over the fact that you were supposed to eat their god-given wrapper too. it felt like eating a banana still in its peel.
until i stumbled upon these in the fancy chip section of publix last week: snap peas baked and turned into a crispy snack.
OH EM GOSH, these things make no sense. they are baked, yet they satisfy the salty/crunchy cravings of me, a lifelong chip-maven. 1/3 of a bag has 130 calories plus way more protein and fiber that you'll get from lays. even if you went insane and ate an entire bag at one sitting, it wouldnt be caloric death.
if you cant find them at your local publix, it's because i have bought them all so that i never run out. and bonus, kids love them and they also come in cesar flavor. did i mention they are less than $2 a bag?
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i openly mocked my friend raechel for loving this night-time soap opera, but finally caved and gave the first episode a try. i was hooked on the show and apologizing to raerae within 20 minutes. jesse and i have watched 18 one-hour episodes in the past week...making for some very late nights and some very intense dreams. worth it!
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another new thing i have been getting on board with that i previously thought was so not-for-me is daily laundry and dishes. we are a small enough family who (shame spiral!) eats out enough that we dont have to run the dishwasher more than once or twice a week.
but after reading this blog post of 10 habits of a well-run home, i decided to give nightly sink-emptying and one load of laundry per day a try.
it's actually been great. it is shocking how much better life seems when you wake up to an empty sink and non-overflowing hampers.
previously jesse and i would wait until i was wearing swimsuit bottoms as underwear (true story) before doing laundry and then would spend about 4 hours doing 8 loads. this would be traumatic enough to make us never want to do laundry again and so the cycle continued.
so learning moderation and doing a little of this work every day rather than waiting until the must-do defcon 5 moment when we have no forks and swamp-thing life-forms are evolving from the rotting ooze at the bottom of our piled-high sink has been a pleasantly tolerable change of pace. (and arent you just dying to come over for dinner at our house?!?!).
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my new friend (whose name is mandy, btw...she finally signed the publicity release and shed her cloak of anonymity) recommended this book to me when she heard me being terrified of the american parenting trend of giving kids everything they want in the name of their happiness and ending up with 25-year-old babies who are clueless, irresponsible and UNhappy.
she said based on the things i was saying, it sounded like i had already read this book. and even though i was previously a chronic eye-roller at parenting books, i asked to borrow mandy's copy because you cant afford to offend your only local friend.
well, i am half way through it and this guy is right on target with how jesse and i want to parent our kids. we really dont care if they are happy all the time. happiness in the under-20 crowd is overrated anyway. i mean, hannah montana? silly bandz? prom? these are examples of things that make kids "happy," but dont seem to positively shape or grow them in any lasting way.
we do want them to be equipped, capable, loved, and fulfilled in a way that lets them know they are significant emotionally and as human beings. that might mean we have to listen to them complain because they'd rather watch TV than do chores, but i'd rather have that at age 9 than have my 22 year old son not know how to call the gas company, pack a suitcase, conduct a job interview, etc because we never treated him like an adult or expected adult behavior from him all in the name of "letting him be a kid."
naturally we will treat judah and layla and want to see smiles sometimes for no other reason than just to see their smiles; and meaningless toys or movies will be there for that. but we feel like our higher calling isnt to parent the kids we have now and make them happy--or even well-behaved--all the time, but to raise them to be the adults that jesus wants for his kingdom (i got this idea from this whole post...unreal).
rite of passage parenting is at times butt-clenchingly cheesy, but hey, most 50 year old white youth pastors are and the author is no exception. but i am all about his message and pray that god gives us the grace, patience and sanity to follow through to be these kind of adult disciple-equipping parents that we strive to be.
okay, i am dismounting from my high horse of wannabe parenting know-it-alledness now. my t-strap snakeskin sandals arent really appropriate for equestrianism anyway.
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