Thoughts on Buddhism

The long title of this post is Thoughts on Buddhism from an unqualified Unitarian Universalist Pagan.

MacGyver has been contemplating changing religions. He has a sort of love-hate relationship with Unitarian Universalism.  He loves the searching, exploring, accepting aspects of it, but he also has a craving for a "deeper" spirituality, if you will.  He believes in the 7 Principles, but he desires something more.  In truth, Unitarian Universalism can sometimes become a little lacking on the spiritual side.  It very much depends on the congregation, and the one we belong to now leans heavily to the Humanist.

Many UUs "supplement" their UU faith with other faiths they are believers of.  I am a UU Pagan.  MacGyver has been exploring a similar path.

He decided to explore other religions to see what spoke to him, starting with Hindu and Buddhism.  We were unable to find any books on Hindu here (annoying), so he started with Buddhism.  He bought two books.  Then he promptly got busy with school, work, PTO, soccer, the repairs to the house/fighting with the insurance company, and the mountain of other things he tackles on a day to day basis, and the books have only been sporadically touched.

By MacGyver, at least.  I can't keep my hands off of books - even when I don't "technically" have time to read them.  So I've been reading a page or two a day of Buddhism: A Breif Insight. 

At first, I was totally on board.  I thought, "Man, this book is converting me.  I'm going to have to become a UU Pagan Buddhist."  I believe in reincarnation; I have for years.  The idea of Kharma really speaks to me.  I am moved by any religion that focuses on doing right by the world as a means to improve one's self and the world at the same time.  Obviously, the focus on refraining from cruelty is one I can really, really get behind (many, many Buddhists are vegetarians).

I also loved that (according to this book), Buddism does not hold that this is the only civiliazation and the only time.  Buddhism posits - much like physics and astronomy might posit - that worlds rise and fall, all over space, time, and dimensions - if you will.  I love this great step outside the rigid bounds of "God made this, and this is it."  (please don't anyone get offended by that simplization, it was only meant to be demonstrative of the preceding point not judgemental of any religion).  I love that view.

The first of the "Four Noble Truths" of Buddhism is the truth of suffering.  That life, by it's very nature, is suffering.  Life on Earth cannot exist with out it.  This is true.  I believe this.

But as I delved further into the Noble Truths, it started to lose me.  Not intellectually.  I still understand what it's saying, but it certainly doesn't speak to me.

At this point in the book (and I'm not through with it, so in a week I may have to post a retraction ;-)), the discussion turns to freeing oneself from the cycle of rebirth by freeing giving up desire.  That I can buy into, a life of minimal desire is usually good for the soul and for those around you.  By giving up desire, one is able to free themself from the cycle of rebirth, to free themself from suffering.  And that is where the wheels start to fall off for me. 

I realize that I don't want to be freed from suffering.  It is for all my suffering that I can appreciate all the wonderful things in my life.  For every ounce of pain and unhappiness I have experienced, moments of joy and pleasure have been that much sweeter.

This book claims that Buddhism does not have a concept of a soul, so to speak.  I haven't 100% wrapped my brain around what it means by this, but is seems to indicate that the bundle of desires and Kharma that passes from life to life does not carry with it any essence of personality.

I don't like that, either.  If anything carries forward from life to life, I would expect it to be the core of who I am.  I would like to believe that I will encounter the same loved ones again and again, though we may never know it in life.  I believe in cycling up.  I believe in building up a morality and that morality carrying forward and effecting where we come out in the future.

But I cannot strive to achieve oblivion.  I know that any educated Buddhist could explain to me that Nirvana is not oblivion.  Other sources cast is as a state of permanant happiness and knowlege.  That doesn't sound bad at all.  But it still implies being severed from concern for the state of other beings.  Because that would be a desire.  And concern for others in the form of desire causes suffering.  So to attain the utlimate enlightenment would - in my mind - sever that connection.

And that I can't fathom as a desireable state.

Perhaps my soul is just not mature enough.  I am certainly not about to acheive enlightenment in this life, with these beliefs.

And maybe my take on Buddhism is so far skewed.  As I said, I haven't finished the book yet.  At this point, though, I'm not there.  I want to believe in Kharma and reincarnation.  I believe in meditation and the release of desire.  I am continually striving to remove as much cruelty as possible from my life.

But if there is an ultimate truth, to me, it's a place where my soul can exist with the souls of those I love, wherever that may be - Heaven, Nirvana, Svargam, or a freaking castle on Mars.

Namaste,
Blessed Be,
Amen.

Obscene

If you went to my high school, I would really rather you didn't read this particular post as I'm kinda banking on the anonymity here.

If you've added Cheap Wine and Cookies on Facebook (and if you have FB but haven't "liked" Cheap Wine and Cookies or followed on Networked Blogs - wtf are you waiting for?  Pretty pretty please do - see below.), then you may already know about this:

Last night, I uploaded some pictures from our weekend onto my real FB page.  This was one of them*:

We had just gotten done playing in the fountain, so my hair is not exactly spectacular, but I still love this picture.

This morning, I saw that I had some photo comments so I hopped on quick to check them.  In addition to a couple of lovely comments from friends, someone I thought was a friend wrote this:

"really!! i thought the birthing pictures were enough." 

And I thought, "She must be kidding."  I figured maybe it was a *sarcasm font* sort of moment.  But I thought about who it was coming from - a childless woman from the pretty redneck area of Michigan where I grew up.  She probably wasn't being sarcastic.

And then I got rather pissed.  What the hell is peoples' problem with breastfeeding?  It can't be the show of skin because people post all manner of bikini and boudoir shots online without giving it a second thought.  Nope, its just the backward way that people in our nation view bodies, birth, and breastfeeding.  Everything is sexualized.  Anything that isn't sexualized is sterilized, sanitized, and marginalized.

This is not going to be a long exposition on how ill our culture is when it comes to birth, breastfeeding, parenting, and body image.  If you want me to direct you to some, I'd be happy to.  They're all over the internet.  It's a well known, well documented, and very sad fact.

This post is just to vent a little steam, and to say 2 things:

If you don't like my effing pictures, don't freaking look at them.

If you can't seperate breastfeeding from sex and obscenity, you need to take a hard look at your own self image and psyche.

The woman who wrote this, as I've already said, is childless and obviously thoroughly uneducated about motherhood.  But that's no excuse, especially considering the foul, sexually explicit jokes her fiance (who used to be completely in love with me, by the way**) posts all over FB.

This one was just totally out of left field.  I get that there are probably some people who weren't too excited about the birth pictures, but that's fine, they didn't have to look at them.  All of them were in albums, so it's not like they posted straight to the newsfeed or anything (same with the pic above), so one would actually have to open the album to see them.  I just don't get people who take issue with breastfeeding photos.  Thankfully, after that I got 20 or so positive comments on that same photo (but you can't see those comments because they're on my "real" FB page).

*I intend to post more of them in a future post.

**  We had a very intense star-crossed sort of thing in high school and a bit while I was in college.  We were very close friends and at one point he confessed his deep feelings for me in a very moving letter, but I was involved with someone else at the time and we all know how I feel about cheating.  It was hard, though, because I had feelings for him, too.  A couple years later we got back in touch, but he ended up cutting off communication with me, saying he was in a new relationship and didn't think there was any way he could make things work with someone else while still talking to me.  I told him I was 500 miles away and involved with someone else, so I wasn't much of a threat.  He wrote back simply, "You'll always be a threat."

I'm tempted to see if that email is still floating around the internet somewhere.  It was all very poingniant and dramatic.  Our relationship was nothing but a series of near misses over a number of years, but I came away with some great memories.  I still smile every time I hear Drops of Jupiter by Train.  It was on the radio in his car one night when he gave me a ride home from work, and he did everything by skywrite that the somg was about me.  Sadly, I was dating a friend of his at the time.

We've recently gotten in touch.  I think we've both grown and changed enough over the years that I am indeed not a threat, and I certainly can't ever imagine dating him now - even if I were single.  He's no longer really my type and he's happily engaged.  But he's still a great friend, and the history is still there.

All that said, the girlfriend would probably be irate if she ever read this, even though it's just whistful nostalgia, so I may end up taking it down eventually.

The Good and The Bad: Drinks and Cravings

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the good and bad things in my life.  I have two super-long posts drafted up about where I’ve failed and where I’ve succeeded, just sort of taking stock.  I may never post them, though because 1) they’re probably pretty boring to read; 2.) the positive parts of them come off as super braggy; and 3.) they are super duper long.  Such posts are the epitome of a post just for myself.

Still, I’ve been spending a whole lot of time just looking around myself, thinking, assessing.  This morning as I made a cup of tea (organic white), I started ruminating on my eating habits.  I’ve gotten a little lax the last couple weeks.  I mean, not all that lax.  I’ve still been eating ethically and getting enough veggies, but my sugar and fat cravings have been off the charts.  I suspect it’s a combination of sleep deprivation and a recent Flintstone growth spurt.

Did you know that sleep deprivation messes with your hormones in a way that causes increased appetite?  What a pain in the rear.

So in the last couple weeks, I’ve indulged in a few more cookies that I usually do.  I’ve had veggie pizza twice (I found out that Little Caesars’ and Pizza Hut both use cheese without enzymes from slaughtered baby animals).  And where I usually drink a constant stream of unsweetened tea – green, white, and black – all day, I’ve instead been drinking a lot more coffee with milk and agave nectar (or *cringe* flavored non-dairy creamers – mmmm . . . caramel macchiato . . .) and either Pepsi Throwback or Dr. Pepper Throwback in the afternoons (Throwback is made with sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup, HFCS=gag).  Granted, I’m still only drinking 2 or 3 cans of pop during the workweek, but I had been down to about one a week, usually divided over two days.

So this morning, gazing longingly at the coffee pot in my office mourning the fact that I really can’t have any more caffeine right now, I put my foot down (figuratively).  I’m going back to tea.  This little period of indulgence has gone on long enough.  No more frozen yogurt before bed.  No more pop in the afternoon.  (Ok, to be realistic “no more” might be taking it a little far, but I am cutting it back down to once a week or so).

I think it’s about time to bring my loose leaf teas back to work.

Monday, Monday . . .

(Ok, so this song isn't fitting at all, but I can't get it out of my head today, and it's a hell of a lot better than that damned Bruno Mars song.  I swear I'm going to shoot someone if I have to hear that song one more effing time.  Good for him that he's rich, single, and childless enough to sit around all frigging day with his hand down his pants.  I don't need to hear about it in crappy song form 75 times a day.  *Ahem*)

It has been one of those mornings.  It’s like two Mondays in one.  Nothing in particular is wrong; it’s just Monday.  Sleep deprivation, probably.  No, not probably; definitely.

You see, we’re transitioning Flintstone to the crib.  Up until a few weeks ago we had been co-sleeping (technically the term is bed-sharing; co-sleeping includes the baby sleeping in a crib in the same room as the parents, but colloquially people seem to recognize co-sleeping as meaning bed-sharing).  I love co-sleeping.  It’s just so easy.  From the time we started when Flintstone was a week or two old I have rarely been sleep deprived.    We lay down to go to bed and he’s out.  If he gets hungry or needs comfort during the night, he just roots around and cuddles up to me and I rarely even have to wake up for it.

It really has been an ideal situation up until recently.  I had a bedrail (installed with all safety precautions attended to) on my side of the bed, and Flinstone would sleep between me and the bedrail because MacGyver was nervous about bumping or elbowing Flintstone in his sleep (even though when they have taken *adorable* naps together it’s never been an issue).  Plus it was nice not having a baby between us at night.  We have a king bed so I could just scoot over to the middle of the bed and it was almost more like a sidecar arrangement.  But eventually Flintstone became able to crawl/roll/squirm down toward the end of the bedrail and soon he was able to pull himself up on it.

Now I have never once slept through Flintstone waking up.  It is a scientifically proven fact that breastfeeding mothers who co-sleep (SOBER) are acutely aware of the movements and wakings of their babies.  I certainly was.  Nevertheless, it worried me to wake up and see Flintstone immediately me a b-line for the end of the bed or lean over the bedrail.

So we moved him into the middle.  After all, he’s a lot bigger now (almost 21lbs!!!), and it’s unlikely that MacGyver would be able to roll over onto him without instantly knowing it.  This worked for a little while until MacGyver accidentally “hit” Flintstone in his sleep.  Now, he didn’t hit him hard at all.  It didn’t even wake Flintstone up, but it was enough to freak MacGyver out.  And Flintstone still loves to take off for the end of the bed (which is where the bedrail is now) or try to climb over us.

So I moved him to his crib, which has been next to our bed all along.  He’s slept in it here and there for various reasons; he sleeps in it when we take trips (it’s a pack and play – his real crib is in his room which is not really hos room yet since he’s still in our room); and he naps in it, so he’s familiar with his crib.

(We wanted to make sure Flintstone thought of the crib as a happy place.  Here is MacGyver's take on how to do that.)

Still, he hasn’t been too into the idea of transitioning.  Why would he be?  Cozy mommy and an all night snack bar or just boring old sleep all by himself (though he’s well aware that I’m in the bed right next to him, which might be making matters worse).

He wakes up every hour.  Every. Single. Hour.  Sometimes, he’ll stay asleep for 2 or three hours when I first put him down, but of course I’m not in bed at that time anyway.  Once I’m in bed, though, it begins.  He doesn’t get mad or cry.  Well, he did the first couple nights, but he now knows that I’m still there, he’s just not in the bed.  But he still wakes up every hour and rustles and grunts and – on the off occasion that I haven’t acknowleged him after 3 or 4 minutes – yells at me.  Not cries, just yells.  His language for “Damnit Mommy!” since the only word he currently says is DaDa (though he does do a couple signs – milk, pick me up, give me).

So I drag my exhausted butt out of bed, pick him up, and nurse him for 6 seconds until he passes back out.  Overall, not a fun time.

And it’s my fault.  I KNOW this.  You don’t have to tell me.  I’ve spent 8 months letting him fall asleep in the boob.  He’s formed a very strong sleep association.  Lying down to nurse = bedtime.  Waking up in the night = time to nurse back to sleep.  And it was great while it lasted.  But now I’m paying for it.  Because he wakes up every hour.  And while a baby who wasn’t nursed back to sleep all the time might already be able to re-settle himself during brief night waking, Flintstone doesn’t yet know how.

But we’re working on it.

I got The No-Cry Sleep Solution since it was recommended by Dr. Sears – who’s advice I have always found trustworthy so far.  I’m only ½ - 2/3 of the way through the book, but so far I love it.  It makes absolute perfect sense and lays out a number of wonderful suggestions for gently using classical and operant conditioning to teach Flintstone to fall asleep on his own and resettle during brief night wakings.  (Note: the book doesn’t call it classical or operant conditioning – that’s the soc/psych/anthropologist in me talking).

I dutifully tracked all his wakings for three nights and MacGyver and the nanny have tracked all his naps.  Honestly, I didn’t find this tracking all that useful, but maybe I will in 10 days when I track again as comparision.

The first technique I’ve chosen to use is to break Flintstone’s association with falling asleep with a nipple in his mouth.  I nurse him until he’s almost asleep, then pull it out.  If he gets upset, I give it back.  The first night we tried it, this back and forth went on for 30 or so repetitions and lasted about 45 minutes.  It was painfully boring, but there was no crying, and in the end it worked.  In successive nights, it has taken fewer and fewer repetitions.  It’s looking good.

After he’s mastered falling asleep without a nipple, we’ll work on putting him in the crib still a little awake using basically the same technique.  After or concurrent with that, we’ll work on not picking him up to sooth him when he wakes up at night, instead trying “soothing words” (think classical conditioning), and patting/rubbing his back.

The only real problem I anticipate is his new night waking habit.  See, he still wants to eat – just a tiny snack – every time he wakes up (which is, as I may have mentioned, every hour).  And he’s figured out that I’m in the bed next to him and that I’ll pick him up and comfort him back to sleep (because if I don’t pick him up he does eventually start crying).  So now, when he wakes up, he rolls around and snuffles and grunts for a few seconds, then he stands up and peers sleepily at me over the railing.  This is a problem because he is obviously waking himself up more than need be if he’s standing up to wait for his snack.  So we’ll have to see how that one gets resolved.

Already, there have been a couple of times where he’s fussed just a little then fallen back to sleep in his own, so there is already progress and it’s only been about 3 nights.  But that progress doesn’t make it any less painful that I can count the number of times I’ve slept more than one hour at a time the last 3 weeks on one hand.  Last night, I almost fell asleep standing up holding him.  Scary.

But it’s worth it.  I cannot do the crying it out thing.  It hurts too much and research all points to it being very bad for his little brain.

We’re also working on getting a stronger bedtime routine set up for him, which is a major challenge considering there is precious little time every night, but we’re getting there.

So, today, I’m tired.  I’m running on tea and stress.  And it won’t be changing overnight.  But it is changing.  And it’s worth it to do it this way.

I just have to keep reminding myself of that when I get the urge to hurl my computer out the window or curl up under my desk and go to sleep.

Happy Monday All!  I’ll try to be a little better at posting this week.  Last week was N.U.T.S. at work.

The Good and The Bad: Drinks and Cravings

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the good and bad things in my life.  I have two super-long posts drafted up about where I’ve failed and where I’ve succeeded, just sort of taking stock.  I may never post them, though because 1) they’re probably pretty boring to read; 2.) the positive parts of them come off as super braggy; and 3.) they are super duper long.  Such posts are the epitome of a post just for myself.

Still, I’ve been spending a whole lot of time just looking around myself, thinking, assessing.  This morning as I made a cup of tea (organic white), I started ruminating on my eating habits.  I’ve gotten a little lax the last couple weeks.  I mean, not all that lax.  I’ve still been eating ethically and getting enough veggies, but my sugar and fat cravings have been off the charts.  I suspect it’s a combination of sleep deprivation and a recent Flintstone growth spurt.

Did you know that sleep deprivation messes with your hormones in a way that causes increased appetite?  What a pain in the rear.

So in the last couple weeks, I’ve indulged in a few more cookies that I usually do.  I’ve had veggie pizza twice (I found out that Little Caesars’ and Pizza Hut both use cheese without enzymes from slaughtered baby animals).  And where I usually drink a constant stream of unsweetened tea – green, white, and black – all day, I’ve instead been drinking a lot more coffee with milk and agave nectar (or *cringe* flavored non-dairy creamers – mmmm . . . caramel macchiato . . .) and either Pepsi Throwback or Dr. Pepper Throwback in the afternoons (Throwback is made with sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup, HFCS=gag).  Granted, I’m still only drinking 2 or 3 cans of pop during the workweek, but I had been down to about one a week, usually divided over two days.

So this morning, gazing longingly at the coffee pot in my office mourning the fact that I really can’t have any more caffeine right now, I put my foot down (figuratively).  I’m going back to tea.  This little period of indulgence has gone on long enough.  No more frozen yogurt before bed.  No more pop in the afternoon.  (Ok, to be realistic “no more” might be taking it a little far, but I am cutting it back down to once a week or so).

I think it’s about time to bring my loose leaf teas back to work.

Weekend: Chickens!

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I try to squeeze every last drop of enjoyment out of my weekends to make up for the fact that I work too darn much during the week.  I then feel compelled to detail all that enjoyment here on the blog to prove that I actually do have a life to preserve those wonderful memories.  So here it is, your usual weekend update – long weekend style:

Friday we got a half day, so I managed to make it home around noon.  MacGyver and I took full advantage of the fact that we had the Nanny for 5 more hours while Punky was still in school and extracurrics.  After some alone time and showers, we jetted out to pick up a part for MacGyver’s truck, Addy, then to Barnes & Noble – our laid back date of choice.  I find that I have a very particular emotional state that I experience almost exclusively in book stores (and libraries).  It’s a sort of blissful, excited anticipation – a mental and internal humming brought about by being in the midst of so much potential knowledge, entertainment, and exploration.  It’s like being in an airport with a ticket to anywhere or opening the coursebook for a University and having the freedom to pick and choose any courses you want.  I know it sounds insanely clichéd, but I really do feel that way.  I love books that much.

And threaded through all that magical anticipation is a ribbon of anxiety, just a tiny tug of stress.  Because there is never, ever enough time.  In a matter of minutes, I will be holding as many books as I can carry, stacked up and tumbling over, and as I make my way back to the table I glance longingly after tome after tome that I will not be touching that day – maybe ever.  There’s a touch of sadness for all the books I will never open, for all the stories I will never experience and knowledge I will never glean.  But, ultimately, the sheer bliss of the books I do ingest is much, much stronger.

I came out of that trip with a list of at least 4 books I needed to download to my Nook as soon as possible, but I’m also aware that with as much as we’re dishing out in child care right now – and with Father’s Day and our Anniversary coming up – that spending hundreds of dollars on books probably isn’t the best idea (we won’t pay attention to the fact that collectively, MacGyver and I walked out of B&N with seven books and 3 or 4 niche magazines).  So something that has been on my list for a very long time since we moved here instantly moved to the top: Get a local library card!

So Saturday, that is just what I did.  After a wonderful, leisurely morning sleeping in with the Flintstone (not only did he sleep until a little after 7, but we took a nice long nap together an hour and a half or so later), Flintstone and I packed into the car to head to the library.  First we had to stop off and return a skirt I had borrowed to a friend and we took a nice long walk and got a mini toffee cheese cake and some tea before getting back in the car.

The library trip was awesome.  I was a little worried that this smallish southern town might have a pretty sad excuse for a library, but I was wrong.  I mean, it’s far from a NY library, but it’s got a lot.  And getting a library card was easy (not like in NY where you have to provide approximately 73 different proofs of address, including 7 or 30 current utility bills, your tax return and a blood sample).  After a lovely couple hours blissfully wandering the stacks, we left with 9 or 10 new books.

On my way home I swung by a friend’s house to pick up Punky and one of her friends for a sleepover and spent a couple hours having a really enjoyable conversation.  I have some of the best conversations with this woman, and I will be very sad to see her and her family leave in a few weeks.  On the bright side, though, they gave us their chickens!  And the coup and run.  So while I was gallivanting around the library and chatting with my friend, MacGyver and her husband were moving the coup and chickens to our back yard!  We now have our very own source of fresh, delicious, very humane eggs.  The 5 chickens (3 white Brahmas and 2 black Jersey Giants [I think]), have been laying an average of 4 eggs a day.  It’s awesome.

MacGyver has been shoveling a wagonload of compost into their run every day.  We’ve been composting all our organic waste for almost a year now, and it has drastically reduced the amount of trash we send to the landfill, and our compost is FULL of little crawlies, which the chickens just go mad for.   Plus, the chicken waste is good for the compost, too, so MacGyver shovels it in, the chickens love it, and they make it better!

Sunday I was very involved in the Memorial Day service at church, and there was a really great picnic afterward.  We had planned to go to the beach later that day, but Punky left her DS outside overnight – a HUGE no-no, so we ended up having to do the consistent discipline thing for the rest of the day/weekend.  That’s definitely one thing that sucks about parenting.  It would be so much easier just to say “don’t do it again” and go to the beach anyway, because WE wanted to go.  But that doesn’t send the right message.  L  So we stayed home and Flintstone played in his kiddie pool on the patio.

I honestly can’t remember what we did Sunday night . . . I know we did something . . .  Whatever it was, it was nice, but obviously not all that memorable.

The new eggs mad for a really delightful Monday brunch of French toast with blended up organic raspberries.  Then, while MacGyver was at Lowe’s getting supplies for yet another MacGvyer project, I scrubbed the ever-loving Hell out of our floors.  I am slightly OCD (recently diagnosed – but that’s another post – nothing too serious), and when I clean things, I CLEAN them.  I swept.  Then I swept again.  Then I went through by hand and picked up any strays.  Then I spot disinfected, and disinfected the base boards.  Then I mopped the entire floor with a hot steam mop.  Hard.  Lucky for me, Flintstone napped the entire time – and let me tell you, that was one long nap!  I think he’s transitioning from 3 naps a day to 2.

It may not sound like the best way to spend a day off work, but I felt soooo good having that done.  If only I had 30 or 40 more days off to clean everything else in the house.  Aside from that, Monday was a whole lot of relaxing, reading, playing with Flintstone, and just general family bonding followed by a very enjoyable dinner.

At some point this weekend, though I can’t remember exactly which day, MacGyver and I curled up and watched Easy A.  I loved it.  Granted, I don’t get to watch many grown up movies, and I often sleep through those I do get the opportunity to see, so I usually like the ones I’m awake for, but I really liked this one.  It was fun and funny and upbeat and just a little bit campy.  I love camp.  Have I mentioned my appreciation of Xena before?  All camp.  Love it.  Anyway, Easy A isn’t super campy, but it’s campy enough to make up for its, we’ll say, literary shortcomings.

And her parents in the movie?  Effing hysterical.  I highly recommend it.

Well I’m sure I’m leaving out the very best parts of our weekend.  I know there are at least a couple things we did that aren’t springing to mind, but that’s the long and short of it.  Another absolutely wonderful weekend.  And a 4 day week ahead of me.  Bonus.

Stuff

      Good Morning!  How are you this lovely Friday?  I'm doing pretty well.  I'm certainly glad it's Friday, but man did this week fly by!  Being the boss is time consuming!

      Have I mentioned that I'm the boss?  I think I have, but just in case, here's a quick recap on what's going on with me and the rest of the Cheap Wino Fam lately:

• When Capt PaperClip left, I took over as Officer in Charge (OIC) of my section, then they started giving me more personnel.  I am now in charge of four officers, four enlisted Marines, and one civilian paralegal.  Ok, honestly NO ONE is in charge of Snarky Paralegal.  She runs the show.  She's been here for over 15 years and has been doing this for over 33, so really, I'm not in charge of her ;-)
• Not only am I CivLaw OIC (responsible for the 43 opinions we have currently waiting to be written), I'm still the Review Officer (in charge of all post trial review and documents), and the Special Assistant US Attorney for the base. So I'm busy.
• As The Boss, I got a lovely new corner office.  With it's own full bathroom.  AND windows on two walls.  How fancy is that?  MacGyver has already stocked me up with four plants to keep it nice and bright, and so far, I'm liking it.  Though I still find it a little odd to shower in my office after PT . . .
• Punky is rocking all over the place.  She was one of 9 second graders selected for the Gifted and Talented program at her school, and she's reading at the upper end of a 4th grade reading level (as in she's thisclose to a 5th grade reading level).
• Then she had to go and spoil my Nerd Mommy pride by asking if she could join cheerleading.  I said no.  I always thought I'd let my kids participate in any activity they showed interest in, but the feminist in me just can't deal with it.  I told her that when she's old enough to buy the uniforms herself, she can join whatever team she wants.  MacGyver suggested she do swimming instead, and she was all about that.  Yay.
• Flintstone can stand on his own now.  It only lasts about 10 seconds at the longest, but he's pretty stable.  I'll be chasing him all over the place long before I'm ready.
• Thank you for all the lovely comments on the new header!  I'm not super impressed with it, but I needed a change and I was getting fed up with trying to make the image in my head into reality.  For now, I'm happy with this.  Maybe one day I'll have a little more time to devote to the task, and I'll come up with something perfect.
• I'm getting out of work early today, and MacGyver and I are going on a real, 100% kid-free date!  Granted, we've gotten to go on a few since Flintstone was born, and this one is an afternoon date, but I don't care.  I'm going on a date!  Truth be told, I'm a little sad to leave Flintstone behind for the 4 -5 hours when I could be playing with him (don't tell MacGyver!  :-P), but I'm sure it will be worth it.
• I have so much more to say!  I have been so bad at keeping up on the blog lately!  But I'm out of time! 

      Here are some crappy phone super cute pictures of Flintstone to tide you over until I can scrounge another post:

 Uh oh, we have a thumb sucker on our hands - but it's sooooo cute!  And he only does it once in a great while.  I'll start worrying when it becomes more regular.  At least he doesn't run around with a pacifier in his mouth most of the time (not that there's anything wrong with that, I just hate having to clean them every 10 minutes).

 Beach Baby.  He loves splashing in any kind of water.

 He LOVES Daddy's tickley scruff.

Helpin Mama with the laundry!



Have an amazing long weekend All!