Fort Wayne

I was too busy living last week (aka being mommy) to respond to the Men's Health ranking of Fort Wayne as America's dumbest city. There was a follow-up in USA Today as well in which they searched for intelligent life and were mostly sure they found it. Gloria Diaz wrote in her Fort Wayne Reader column that as a city we have a problem with low-self esteem.

Maybe. I don't think that as a city we're necessarily shuffling along looking at our shoes as the world passes us by. I think we have a case of growing pains. Since our family moved here in 2001 there has been steady growth in the greater Fort Wayne area. Housing, hospitals, retail shops have all changed the face of Fort Wayne. It really is a case of midwestern modesty gone awry. For all that the city offers Fort Wayne really isn't advertised as the forward thinking family friendly city that it is becoming. Sometimes it's easy to miss the roses growing in your own backyard. Familiarity shouldn't have to breed contempt.

For all those who dismiss Fort Wayne as just another speck on the map on a cross country flight, I say look again.

Off roading in a pram

This post falls in the category of, "there's more than one way to use an item". We have a miniature white doll pram that my daughter received for her 3rd birthday years ago. While it sees plenty of action in a nice ,"let's push our dollies around" kind of way it also serves as my baby's personal ATV when she piles every toy in the room in the pram and then tries to drive it over a pile of laundry to be folded. Really I ought to get a digital camera, I don't think my description does it justice. Or there's my son's favorite use for the pram, a military vehicle from which he shoots a hobby horse upside down somehow mounted through the pram. Don't tell me that the y chromosome means nothing.

That's the trouble. I am an only child so I have no experience watching the full of y boy get molded into a still full of y man. I am starting to realize that what I thought were a great deal of personality differences between my children were actually more along the great gender divide.

I am reading a great book right now titled, "The Wonder of Boys" by Michael Gurian. He also wrote, "The Wonder of Girls" which was equally amazing. Somehow he has hit it right on the head. I highly recommend these books to anyone who has ever puzzled over boys and girls.

Alone at last

Finally, back to the routine again. It's nice to have the house to myself while the baby sleeps and the kids are at school. Funny that an only child should grow up and create so much company for herself! As my cousin says, it's all good. Weird to have that typed by my hands. Hmmm, maybe Martha Stewart herself is using that bit of slang in her new digs. By now she must be more or less settled in and perhaps shelling a few chickpeas for hummus for a a few hundred or so.

Gee maybe this is why I'm not alone so much anymore, there's just no telling what I'll type. Till next time.

spaghetti facial

Looks like it will be more of the same today. School is closed for the third day following an ice storm here in the midwest. Hmmm....What to do with the kids? Library? If it is safe enough to drive there. Definitely one of those days where any type of indulgent self care will be in short supply; the kind of day where the steam from draining the spaghetti counts as a facial! Maybe we'll just build another blanket tent.

When I surface again maybe there will be something more intriguing to blog about.

Where's my Alice?

We live in a Brady Bunch house. I can prove it just by showing you all the dark wood paneling. The kind homeowners we bought it from took the time to update quite a few things such as carpet and drapes; but underneath it all it still a seventies era house. I wouldn't be surprised at all to find Peter Brady's brown plaid pants in some corner of the attic.

Now here's my question; where's my Alice? Wasn't she supposed to come with the house? There was never an episode of the Brady Bunch without her puttering in the kitchen or sprucing up the family room after those Brady kids ran through it. I think I got taken on this deal because right now there is nothing very tidy or orderly about this house. Not after having the kids home for two weeks.

Oh well, maybe the next house we'll buy from the Jetson's. Only then we'll tell them Rosie has to stay.