Clutter, Clutter and more Clutter

Dear readers, I really hate to tell you this, but the Goddess is a collector. Collector of books, collector of magazines, I am the queen of "I might need this someday."


Well, no more. The goddess has taken this day to don her stylish vinyl gloves and attack the so-called tool cabinet in the basement. Not only did she clear out the cabinet to the bones and create a semblance of order (a semblance, mind you, but some is better than none), she actually went through her precious books and began (gasp!) earmarking those for disposal.

All kidding aside, I did take the time to go down into my dusty basement and reconnoiter the situation. And as my friend Miss C says, all I say was A MESS. Stuff piled everywhere, dusty tools, dried up plumber's putty, you name it, it was downstairs looking me in the face. I got me a garbage bag and started throwing stuff away. Did you know that I had a pasta and cappucino maker??? I did know, but it was hard to tell exactly what they looked like under all that dust. Certainly, I was not throwing my precious wedding gifts away, but they did need to be wiped down!! My aim was to create a place for my breadmaker to sit, which has been chillin in my dining room since the turn of the century, but hey, can't have it all. At least there was some sort of order to the mess.

Now the books. I am a book lover, can't live w/out them, love them to death and HATE throwing them away. Borders loves me, Barnes and Noble loves me, amazon.com, half.com, alibris.com shuts down when I stop ordering. That being said, for me to give up books speaks volumes. So, let the volumes speak, for as you read this, there is a full box of books either waiting to be picked up by some lucky person, or headed to the recycling pile. I'm sick of them, sick of looking at them, and let's face it, I'm not going to save them till my crew gets older, first of all, that's about five years from now and by then they'll pick out their own books.

So, the goddess is feeling free and easy, tossing out stuff to make room for her ever expading shea butter business. What shea butter business, you ask? Well, you must be new - click the banner at the top of the page and you'll see.

Here's a great link to an article about clutter that I found in the NYTimes. Enjoy!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/01/health/01well.html?no_interstitial

Gotta Love Those Turtles

As you all know, the Goddess loves the Comcast Turtles - Mr. Slowsky is so wonderfully rude. "Oh, do you have Comcast because it's faster?" Enjoy!

I didn't want to but....

.....I just have to post this. Oh, I feel so bad, but I just couldn't resist. A friend of mine (Thanks Mrs. J) sent this to me. And I had to share it with all of you, dear readers.




Dude, just stick with "Jesus Loves Me"!

Growing up is harder on Parents!!

My oldest is losing a tooth. I want to smack him back a year. How dare you grow up on me? I still remember him getting the hiccups in the womb and me thinking, uh oh, I'm going into labor! This was of course in January and I wasn't due till March.

With all the growing up around here, however, my dear daughter, Princess E (after Princess P on Super why has decided that she still isn't ready to use the potty. Ok, I can deal, since she's got nine months till she is supposed to go to school. However, she will NOT be walking around in pull-ups when she is four. During the summer, if she has not decided to train, I am going to take away all the pullups and put her outside on the deck with her potty. She can either pee on her legs or use the pot. Yeah, drastic, I know, but she is just being lazy. I mean, if you can roll up on me saying, "I boo boo, change me" then honey, that potty's got your name on it!!

Let's not even talk about Mr. J. Seems like just yesterday he was chillin' in his bouncy seat, now he's snatching pretzels off the counter (with a stool cleverly built out of the top of the trash can, the box of ziploc bags and a broken stool - I kid you not). And talking - " come on Mr. J., it's time to get changed..." "No!" Next thing you know if you don't chase him down, you'll find a, ahem, used diaper in the corner and someone else running around half naked.

So, loose teeth notwithstanding, next September the big C starts KINDERGARTEN!!! Stop the madness, now real school begins. As if I didn't feel like an inadequate parent in 1/2 day preschool, now I have to be supermom in real school.

What are they going to teach him in kindergarten, besides how not to clobber your neighbor or try to pull him down by his legs? He knows his colors, he knows his letters (in and out of order). (A pox on you Word World and Super Why!!! Why did you teach my children better than I could? Even Mr. J at 20 months is running around saying the alphabet.) But I digress. The point is, while my son is certainly not gifted (although a smug part of me would like to think so - he is, after all a Yale legacy child.)I am fully aware that he is going to be way ahead of some of the children in his class. As a former teacher, I know this can be either good or bad. I don't want my child used as the class tutor. Certainly, this reinforces his learning as well as helping others, but I want him to excel! If he gets a good teacher, then he will be given the approriate advanced work.

(Yeah, I can hear you all now - Goddess! Shame on you! This is KINDERGARTEN, for goodness sake. C-Dude is merely a babe in the educational woods! Chill out, you type A evil stage mom!)

And you're right. (Biiiiig Goddess sigh.) I've got to tone it DOWN or I'm going to be that "stage mom" parent. But I do worry. Do I worry enough to homeschool? Hmmmmm, get back to me on that a little later. Meanwhile...hey, I'll just check that loose tooth 5x a day - there's nothing Type A about that......is there?

New Jersey to Apologize for Slavery - WHY???

Now I’ve read it all.

I ran upon this gem of an article when I was reading the paper yesterday. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,319549,00.html

“New Jersey considering an apology for slavery”.

Just for a moment, think about that headline.

What? With all that is going on in New Jersey politics, New Jersey schools, the price of gas, the insurance rates, the high taxes….this is what this representative from Essex County (the heart of political corruption, it seems) focuses on ? An apology for SLAVERY? How about apologizing for the lack of paid family leave? How about an apology for all the high taxes we in New Jersey have to pay. It just goes to show what is really important in our exalted legislature. And a rep from Essex County - the home of Newark, Jersey City and Orange, where the mayor was arrested for corruption – how about apologizing for that?

Although some may differ in opinion, slavery is a historical event, much like the Holocaust, where many people of a same race and/or religion were exterminated and/or eradicated culturally by moving them en masse from one country/continent to another. My comments here are not to lessen the impact of this historical event. (In fact, why don’t we demand an apology from the descendents of some of the African countries who sold these slaves in the first place? It wasn’t all about kidnapping, if you know your history!!)

This William Payne needs to get a life and look around in his own backyard:
“But Payne, an Essex Democrat, said an apology would comfort black residents and set an example for other states. "Slavery was an evil and shameful practice and New Jersey should profess remorse for its past involvement," he said.”

“Comfort black residents” COMFORT? Is New Jersey going to give me a great big motherly hug? No, thanks. Save your time and energy for something more productive that passing this stupid bill. So New Jersey apologizes….what difference would it make? Will it change the inherent racism that goes on even today? Will it change the incidence of black on black crime that takes place in low-income areas? Will it inspire the drug dealers who recruit little ones as young at 8 to stop their indoctrination? My guess is no….so what’s the point?