Nablopomo

Totally Can’t Even Fake Curse Anymore! Fudge.

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 1 Comment

Well Crap.  We parents are so creative.  When I want to use the “F” word, I don’t because I have kids and they hear and repeat everything.  I am always happy when my kids use language in its appropriate context, but there are some who frown upon cursing from the pre-school set.  Admit it–there is nothing cuter and funnier than when someone else’s kid curses.  HILARIOUS.

So we were at the Magic House yesterday.  After we parked I was not fast enough getting out of the car and I hear Noah laughing. I get up an I hear “Lets get out of the frickin car.”

“What did you say?”

“Nothing” says the little boy sheepishly.

“You don’t say that word Noah.”

‘Well you do.”

“Yes and I’m an adult.”  I also wanted to scream I say it because I can’t say what I really want to say. I say it because I don’t want you to learn the other word.  But the problem is that when I hear him say “frickin” I really hear him say the other word–because that is totally what it has come to mean now.  The word we use to replace the word we want to use has now come to mean the same thing as the word we don’t want our kids to use and now I don’t want him to say “frickin.”  This all means I have to find a new word and lord help me I don’t want it to be “fudge.”  That just totally sucks.

So. fess up readers–what are your replacement curse words and have your kids begun to commandeer them?

Keys

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

I have a terrible history with keys–some due to my own actions and some due to the actions of others.  But the result is always the same “Where the hell are my keys?”  I must utter this 10 times a day.  I’d like to blame it on old age but really, keys and I just don’t get along.  I lose my keys in my bag every day.  I mean it every day.  I know that I should try to be more organized  and that I should maybe put my keys in the same place every time.  But I don’t and I’d like to think I can and would but I’m going to be honest–that just isn’t going to happen.  So, I usually just waste time each day searching for my allusive keys. To make matters worse (I know–could this possibly be any more boring) my car key is separate from the rest of my keys.  So not only do I get to lose one set of keys a day–I often get to lose 2.

Today, the kids and I went out and Bill played golf.  I couldn’t find my house keys on Friday and still haven’t–I am thinking/hoping that I left them at work.  I didn’t think to tell Bill to not lock the door.  So we get home from a long day and it hits me–“Shit I don’t have keys.”  So I weighed my options–tried to lift the screens on the windows in the back to climb in.  No luck. I finally did manage to get the screen up on a front window and get the window up so that I could hurl myself up and through the window.  It was frighteningly easy–aside from the two 60lbs dogs trying to lick my face off as I tried to pull my big ass through the window.

I need to find my keys and remember to lock those windows.

Accept and Appreciate

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 1 Comment

It’s really easy in this world of excess to want it all and to envy those who seemingly have it all or at least who have more than you do.  I’m working hard at accepting where I am and appreciating what I have regardless if it is where I want to be or what I want to have.  It’s hard to do but for me and my husband and our kids it is super important that we start really looking at and talking about what is important and what really matters.

I really started thinking about it this week as the kids began their barrage of wants for Christmas and I looked at the laundry pile (it would shock you–I’m not kidding) and all the clothes left in drawers.  I am an over-consumer.  I might single-handedly be keeping the economy in my little town for tanking completely.  It’s really time to live more simply.  It’s going to be hard.  I admit it.  But Noah is getting to the age where he is beginning to expect a certain life-style and it is time to change it before it is harder to turn back.

We’ll see how it goes.  But I am beginning to accept and appreciate more.  That’s a step.

Who Decides Value?

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

I have to say that for the most part, on a societal level, that the popular media drives our values.  During the CBS evening news there was a story/tribute to Dino De Laurentiis. I feel for his family and their loss, but really–I don’t care.  Why do we put people up on a pedestal.  It’s not like he cured cancer or invented the car.  He made movies.  How has that become so important to warrant a 3 minute segment on the National news?  This is certainly not the only instance of this, but it is really starting to get to me as my children get older and more aware.  It just seems backwards to me that we revere people who play sports, sing, act/make movies.  What about revering the real heros?  Doctors, Public Defenders, Firemen, Policemen, Teachers, Nurses, and Veterans are just a few of the true heroes on our worlds.  They are the ones who should be honored on the evening news and who we should strive to be like.

Part of this says a lot about what our society values and explains why our educational system is as bad as it is.  Every job in our society that is seen as “great” requires little to no education.  Sorry, but it’s true.  Not that our professional athletes don’t get educations at college (as these days most get them) but they aren’t famous or paid millions because they got a college degree and you don’t see many of them out there telling kids how important education is.  Now, I know that we as parents have our role in teaching our children what is important and I’ll make sure that my kids have the values that I do and that education is the most important thing one gets in life.  But what about all those kids whose parents don’t have the time–because they are working.  Or the kids whose parents didn’t get and education and don’t understand the importance?  When we put people up on a pedestal and value what they do, it should be for the right reason.  Is the guy who produces a movie any more important in our world than the guy who runs the line at the facility making school bus engines?  We don’t celebrate that guy–we turn our nose up at that guy because his job isn’t glamorous.

Is someone who acts in a movie or sings for a living more important than the man who runs into a burning building to save a stranger or the lady who stops the guy from breaking into your house while you sleep?  But who do we want to be?  Who do we give more coverage and time too?  Is the guy who scores the winning touchdown more important than the teacher who helps someone learn how to inquire?

Who do you value and why?  It’s time we start valuing what is real and worthy.  Who has the greatest impact on our world?  The actress making 10 million dollars for  3 months of work or the ER doctor who saves your life who makes 70k a year?  I know how I’d answer that, how would you?