Saturday, April 17, 2010

You might be an older child in a large family if...

... You know what it's like to sweep the floor after you just swept it and still have the same amount of dirt in the pile.

...You estimate that you've changed thousands (at least!) of dirty diapers.

... You learned to drive in a fifteen passenger (or so) van

... You have to turn on music when you're home alone, because otherwise it's just too quiet.

... You love holding babies.

... You can see through most tricks your siblings try to play on you, leaving them asking, "How did you know??!?!"

... When you say you want to have lots of children, you really mean it because you are familiar with all of the work that goes into taking care of children.

...You know tons of ways to get babies (and small children) to sleep.

... At eleven, you knew more about caring for babies than a whole room full of teenagers.

... You are good at interrogating your siblings.

... You recognize almost every kind of crying, and like labeling them. "That's sooo fake!" "Oh, poor baby, he's tired." "You better give her back to her mom, she's hungry."

... You know more about childcare than the average mom with the average number of children

... Parents don't give you the normal instructions when they hand you their baby, because they know you already know all that.

... You can quiet a screaming child faster than anyone else. (even their parents at times!)

... You instinctively ask three times for something before even expecting an answer.

... You can turn off your senses and focus, and handle a dizzying number of tasks and responsibilities far in advance of any normal, non-elite (read: small family) child, adult, or parent.

... You learn mind manipulation tricks that would be the envy of anyone (not excluding Nazi psychologists) for convincing stubborn little tykes to eat food they don't like.

... You learn to like anything set before you, and how to eat it fast.

... Your dream car has a rack on top for... anything you wanted to put on it.

... You consider a reading speed of -700wpm gruelingly slow.

... You consider it common knowledge that books got by one member of the family is public domain and up for reading by anyone else in the family.

... You believe it is the highest duty of every sibling to listen to what you say... for their own good.

... You do not consider genre to be a limiting factor for what gets on your reading list, but merely a handy reference point in conversation.

... "Quiet Time" means "Relatively Peaceful Time" to you.

... Bed time is looked forward to, not because of hard work done (though that plays a part too), but because you can close your eyes without someone pulling a prank on you or asking if something is wrong.

... Grammar is only applicable when writing; half sentences are the rule of the day because you rely on everyone else filling in the blanks.

... You don't bat an eye when someone runs in crying because their "arm is broken!" or because they "fell and broke their neck!" or because of a skinned knee so deep you can see bone... and other things.

... You don't jump at the sound of glass breaking, and instinctively cordon off the area and start cleaning it up.

... You find yourself singing songs from movies such as Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan , as well as quoting movies such as The Aristocats and Lady and the Tramp

(About half of these are mine, and about another half are from Jay, and the remaining four are from Felicity and Kaitland. :) Anyone have any more to add?)

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Breaking News!!

Okay, not quite. But I noticed something recently.

Remember how I said, "The knife guy (as Josiah and I have dubbed him) was very friendly and happy, the type that doesn't really belong in Walmart, because they are too smiley. (I bet you didn't know that they have a rule that only the smiley stickers are allowed to smile.) (Okay, so that's not true. But it seems like it at times.)" (for those who are completely lost, go here. :))

So, we were at Walmart. And I was looking around.

And.

I.

Noticed.

There are no more smiley faces in Walmart!! They got rid of them. :( Walmart dislikes smileys more than I thought, apparently. So, next time you go, be sure to smile real big, to make up for the lack of smileys. :D

Seriously, Walmart can really be grumpy. One time, our whole family was at the other Walmart (Not ours.) (We own a Walmart, don't ya know.) and we were having a grand time, laughing and smiling and pretending weird things. (Papa told us to try to act normal. Isn't that weird? And then he started walking funny and looking from side to side. :)) So anyway, we were having a good time. And everyone was looking at us really weird. Like, how dare you have fun in here? Haha.

Wow... that was really random. I'm tired, that's what. (to quote Rachel Lynde.)

Anne Quotes

I will now take a brief departure from the expected content of this blog to bring you some favorite Anne of Green Gables quotes. :)

From the movie/book:

[Anne has just fallen from a roof]
Diana Barry: Oh Anne! Just say one word and tell me if you're killed!
Anne Shirley: No... but I think I've been rendered unconscious.

(The above is my personal favorite. I say it fairly often. :))

Anne Shirley: Ruby Gillis says when she grows up, she wants to have a line of beaus on a string and make them crazy for her. I'd rather have ONE in his rightful mind.

Aunt Josephine: I like people who make me like them. Saves me so much trouble forcing myself to like them.

As Rachel Lynde used to say, the sun will go on rising and setting whether I fail in Geometry or not. I think I'd rather it didn't go on if I failed.

Anne Shirley: Wilt thou give me a lock of thy jet-black tresses?
Diana Barry: But I don't have any black dresses.
Anne Shirley: Your hair.
Diana Barry: All right.

Anne Shirley: My life is a perfect graveyard of buried hopes. That's a sentence I read once and I say it over to comfort myself in these times that try the soul.

[Gilbert finds Anne clinging to the post under a bridge]
Gilbert Blythe: Anne Shirley. What in heck are you doing here?
Anne Shirley: [trying to be dignified] Fishing. For lake trout.

Anne Shirley: Gilbert Blythe would stand on his head if I asked him to.

Anne Shirley: [after saying her prayers] Did I do alright?
Marilla Cuthbert: Yes, if you were addressing a business letter to the catalog store.

Diana Barry: [Anne is going to apologize to Aunt Jo] Anne, don't. She'll eat you alive!
Anne Shirley: Don't worry. I've had lots of practice making apologies.

From the book:

"Isn't it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive--it's such an interesting world. It wouldn't be half so interesting if we know all about everything, would it? There'd be no scope for imagination then, would there?"

"There's such a lot of different Annes in me. I sometimes think that is why I'm such a troublesome person. If I was just the one Anne it would be ever so much more comfortable, but then it wouldn't be half so interesting."

"It's so easy to be wicked without knowing it, isn't it?"

"And people laugh at me because I use big words. But if you have big ideas you have to use big words to express them, haven't you?"

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Hmmm....

So, I've been thinking. (comforting, isn't it?)

I've been thinking about whether or not it's okay to do other things (like chatting to other people or reading things) while talking to someone on the phone.

On one hand, people are busy and I understand that they want to get as much as possible done. I understand that I live in the mulit-tasking generation.

On the other... for me, at least, it feels a bit like the person isn't really all that interested in what I am saying... like they have other things to do.

It can feel this way with chats as well, when you know that the person you are talking to is also talking to 10 other people. :P (okay, slight exaggeration, at least for the most part...)

It's probably technically "okay" to do this... but is it the best thing to do? Does it really benefit you or the people you are talking to when you give them this sort of divided attention?

Now, I'm not saying that I've never chatted with more than one person at a time... I've had up to 5 conversations going at once. (On the phone, however, I usually do nothing but talk to the person. Sometimes I tidy or something like that, but I don't do things that require much thinking. :)) But I didn't like it, nor did I initiate all of those conversations. Even two is hard for me, because I feel like I am not giving as much attention to one person as I am to the other. So... basically, I'm not saying that it's wrong to talk to more than one person at a time, but I think that sometimes you should give your friends your undivided attention... at least for a little while.

What do you all think? (and no, this post is not directed at any person in particular... I've just been thinking about this and talking about it with my dad. He suggested I write about it... so, I did. :))