gotta love when silly shows make you think

I was a late pickup on a particular bandwagon earlier this year, but I climbed aboard at the beginning of the regular TV season. And now I have to admit to being a gigantic lover of this show, anxiously counting down the hours each Wednesday until my television is lit up with abnormally beautiful "teenagers" and the power of song and dance. No denying it, Glee is at the top of my TV list.

Apparently, I'm late to the Glee-fan-blogging as well (even lovely hubby beat me), and especially so because the episode that's still on my mind is from last week. For me, the appeal of this show is layered- yes, there are the aforementioned beyond-realistically attractive cast of (supposed) high schoolers, and that doesn't hurt. Of course, the singing is phenomenal, and since a cool friend gave me the first CD release of the show's music, I've been singing more Journey than ever before in my life. Even the kids are getting into it, which is a clear sign that I've played the CD a ton. (JAM told his teacher that he likes the version of Leaving on a Jet Plane on it since he and his teacher are both John Denver fans; Red has been singing the line "She took a midnight train going an-yyy-wheeerrrreee!" over and over; and Pudge is a big fan of Gold Digger, although his favorite line comes out, "Get down Dora, get down.")

But then there's more. Sure, you've got to suspend your disbelief for much of the silliness, and Jane Lynch's behavior is hysterically funny in a way that it wouldn't be if it was played out for real in your own child's school, but there's something that isn't easily described that's at play with this show. The characters are becoming more multi-dimensional, in addition to their beautiful appearances and voices, and the story lines' complexities are increasing.

Case in point: the Wheels episode. So much going on in this one, and yes, this silly little show actually challenged us a bit to think about real-life, serious stuff. Without going into the nitty-gritty of the episode (my gut tells me that if you care about watching the show at all, you've most likely already watched last week's episode), suffice it to say that the viewpoints toward people with physical and cognitive disabilities was interesting and thought-provoking. The "nice" people may have kindness on their sides, but that doesn't necessarily mean that their approaches are the best. The "mean" folks might be abrasive and uncouth (and goodness knows, even more strong adjectives than that!), but that doesn't mean that they don't have good intentions, at least sometimes.

I watched this episode play out with a twinge of prediction in my heart, so I wasn't entirely surprised by the WHAT? reveal at the end. Siblings of people with significant special needs may not all be the same (while I would love the biting sense of humor, I would look simply awful in a warm-up suit day after day), but there's certainly a common ground of knowing that everyone simply wants to be treated the same. Not spoken down to, not humored, not pitied. Just respected. While I was initially feeling prickly about where this episode's storyline was going, I was pleased with the final direction, even while a few tears trailed down my cheeks.

To think that I first thought this was just a silly little show. What a nice surprise.


Trying not to sound like too big a TV addict,



**How am I doing on my gratitude challenge?? Come check up on me here since I'll be adding new entries each day!**

now posting regularly

Time to take a little look-see at the old NPR radio bookmark for this past week. What fun!

• Corruption Mars Romania's Post-Communist Progress-I found this story from Morning Edition remarkable overall, but really the portion addressing the couple who couldn't get medical attention during the wife's labor and delivery. Horrifying to hear, this poor child now will have a lifelong debilitated condition because no one acted in a basic humane manner. Another reminder that the world isn't all like my own experiences.

• How Did Your Folks Look Before They Were Parents?- This All Things Considered story is fantastic! You simply have to listen, really trust me on this one. And then, the next time you have access to old photos of your own "formerly-awesome" parents, you gotta submit your own. After you listen, go directly to the site- My Parents Were Awesome.
  

• DEA Agent Killed in Afghanistan Remembered- On a much, much different note, this is a worthwhile recent Morning Edition story in that we actually get to know about one individual of the horrifyingly high number of people who have lost their lives in these wars. They all deserve to be honored and remembered.

• Finally, this little tidbit from Morning Edition. A friend just told me yesterday about her children's severe Eggo withdrawal. I had no idea!

Loving the wide array of stories you can find on NPR,



**How am I doing on my gratitude challenge?? Come check up on me here since I'll be adding new entries each day!**

crunching the numbers

I'm not the best mathematician out there (think Barbie: "Math is hard"), but even I can read numbers, and my blogging account is telling me that if you add up all those "I said what?" digits way down on the sidebar, you get the magical number of 500! Apparently, I've had the audacity to blab on and on over the Internets via blog posts 500 times now. While my first four posts sat in cyberspace all lonely for two years, I eventually remembered that I had started this silly little thing and it soon became an integral part of my life. However bloggers may be viewed by the media and general (i.e. non-blogging) public, I know that this outlet has served me since I really got going in April of 2007.

The numbers are interesting for me to look at... I can see that I've written about reading a full 17 more times than I have about Pudge, but in my defense, I've been reading a heck of a lot longer than I've shared my life with that adorable little 2-year-old. JAM is running behind Red by 5, but he's also in school all day, and I've spent almost every single day, all day with little miss Red for the last two and a half years. And, I'm thrilled to know that guffaws and humor round out the top five tags, since I try to keep a good level of fun in this space.

Mostly, what the number 500 shows me is that I've been able to keep at something that I enjoy, even as life took a couple of unexpected loop-de-loops over the last 2+ years, and that even though it's something that takes up some of my not-that-overabundant time, it's still something that I prioritize. While many people don't get it- the whole blog-writing or blog-reading thing, I do. This has become a part of my life, and I really freaking enjoy being morninglight mama. It's not so much about the numbers in the followers sense, (although I do have to admit that I prefer even numbers, so I asked lovely hubby to click the button the other night), it is about the connections. It really makes my day when I get a comment that says someone got a good laugh at a post (even if I'm just sharing a guffaws-worthy email forward), or when someone takes a brief moment to say that they can relate to something that I've shared here. Even the posts that don't get any comments at all still helped me to think something through or record a tidbit that I want to be forever in my blogging-memory.

I am definitely the person who most enjoys reading through this silly little blog, and I'm totally cool with that. Clicking over to the few posts that I've tagged faves brings a smile to my face, while some others (no need to specify here) make my heart race with refreshed sadness, fury or frustration, but they all are real. Whatever I put down here is true to my life, and that's why I started this thing in the first place.

So, 500 down, who knows how many to go. In the end, it's less about the numbers anyway. It's more about embracing my inner blogger, and making her stay up late at night click clacking away on the little laptop. She's beyond ecstatic to be here.


Feeling appreciative for this thing called blog,



**How am I doing on my gratitude challenge?? Come check up on me here since I'll be adding new entries each day!**

two years of Pudge

I'm foregoing the guffaws this week to instead reminisce about this day two years ago when I screamed my head off, pranced around naked in the company of adults who were not my husband, and pushed a bowling ball through my private parts. Yes, that phrase isn't just metaphorical; seeing as Pudge topped the scales at ten pounds, he was slightly heavier than the size ball I would use if I was a bowler. It was a memorable day in that I was due eight days earlier on my own birthday, and while I wasn't keen on the idea of sharing a birthday with my child (call me selfish, but I want a day that is just mine, because I'm a big baby like that), I also didn't think that had to mean I was pregnant for an extra EIGHT days. By the time he came out, he was gigantic and looked like those 2-month old babies that they cast to play newborns in TV and film. He was also red as a beet, had crunched up eyes, and had peeling skin on just about every inch of his body. Seriously, I peeled that kid for weeks, talk about being 'overdone.'

While I wasn't prepared to be a mom to THREE kids, I reveled in that falling in love feeling that happens each and every time that I hold my new baby for the first time. If you could look past the flaky skin (it was really a mess, I'm not kidding), he was really such a beautiful little baby.

And now, two years later, he's our little stand-up comic. (Favorite joke: "Knock knock, Who's there, Mr. Potato-Head!" all said in one fast breath.) His 'cheese face' can slay me each and every time I pull the camera out. At two, he's a little Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde- one minute he can be found randomly beating on my leg for no apparent reason, and the next he can jump up to comfort his big sister while she cries for the 47th time that morning (also for no apparent reason). He's really talking these days, with one of his standard responses to any question asked of him being, "I don't know, either." (It used to just be "I don't know," which I would answer with, "I don't know, either" and now he's just decided to cut right to the end of the conversation.) At various times today he asked me about his birthday, with my favorite one being, "Peoples sing happy birday?" He truly has a sweet heart, a gigantic funny bone, but also a mischievous streak a mile wide. I'm hoping that will continue to be the recipe for one happy little guy.


Happy 2nd birthday, Pudge. You are one amazing little kid, and I'm really thankful that you've made your way into our family!


Embodying the image of a proud mommy,



**How am I doing on my gratitude challenge?? Come check up on me here since I'll be adding new entries each day!**

now posting regularly

It's my weekly round-up of NPR stories that interested me. It's been an atypical week for my radio listening habits, so unfortunately, I have just two bits to share.

• From All Things Considered the other day, I listened with a growing knot in my stomach to the story, "Digital School Library Leaves Book Stacks Behind." The short story is that a boarding school has eliminated all actual books from their library in favor of a completely digital collection. Yes, I said ALL actual paper books. None. Zilch. This got me thinking... does every new piece of technology eventually have to lead to an all or nothing choice? Because while I adore my addictions to several now-necessary pieces of technology, as an avid reader, I can't say that I look forward to the demise of paper books. I have yet to use an e-reader, but while I can see their value for several reasons, I cannot imagine a day that I eliminate all real books from my life. Yet, these boarding school students are experiencing a complete transformation to their library experience, and I'm not sure that's positive or necessary. Give the story a listen- it's under 5 minutes- and see what you think?

• I also wanted to point out something that we heard this morning during Morning Edition. It's just one of those 'strange stories' that leads the return to the program from the advertising break, and it's literally only 27 seconds long. As we honor our Veterans and their service today, this is an important story to hear, just in case you had any plans for mugging anyone today. No? Eh, give it a go anyway, trust me.

Hoping that I get to listen to more NPR this week,



**How am I doing on my gratitude challenge?? Come check up on me here since I'll be adding new entries each day!**

wrapping up some book love

Time for another installment of 5 Minutes for Books' Children's Classics! This month, we're thinking about holiday books we love to share with our kids. Once again, here I am struggling with the 'classics' label of this carnival, because I'm not sure that some of the holiday books that I love officially count as classics just yet. Bear Stays Up for Christmas and Olive the Other Reindeer both come to mind as ones that I personally adore reading year after year, but they're both relatively recent releases. We actually do have an official classic that has sat on our bookshelf for years that I have never even read aloud once- the version of A Charlie Brown Christmas that was available from Kohl's a while ago. Perhaps this will be the year that one makes its debut in our home.

So, without a clear leader out in front for this month's carnival, my idea for this post is a little bit different. Well, I guess it's a couple of ideas. First of all, I've been wanting to copy my friend Corinne's idea about the 12 Days of Christmas Books for a while now, and this year I might actually have my stuff together enough to do it! Lovely hubby grabbed a bunch of books from the library already, so it may be pretty challenging to put it down to just 12 books. From a cursory look at the pile, I'm fairly certain that Four Friends at Christmas and Maisy's Snowy Christmas Eve will be big hits with the younger kids. I really am looking forward to just surrounding myself with all the holiday books we have in our personal and borrowed collections and awarding the twelve ribbons (and wrapping paper!) to this year's winners!

And now for the third part of this post, a part that is in fact the exact opposite of the point of the Children's Classics feature. Rather than sharing another wonderful, you've-just-got-to-read-this-book-to-your-kids title, I'm going to finish up here by warning you to steer clear of what has to be the worst holiday title for kids ever published.

Grandpa's Witched-Up Christmas by James Flora is seriously an awful book. I get that it was published in 1982, but um... that means that I was the target audience for this when it actually came out, and I can tell you wholeheartedly that this book would have made me cry. Sure, witches who want to eat children have appeared in previous tales, and maybe even transformation of kids out of human form isn't completely unfamiliar to older kids' books. But I'm pretty sure that the following excerpt will complete my argument for keeping this book out of your holiday basket this year. The setup is that the witch is about to boil the kids-turned-pig-and-owl on Christmas Eve when someone much-loved intervenes on their behalf:

"With one hand he grabbed the witch by the neck and shook her. With the other hand he plucked me from the pot. Just in time, too. I was beginning to turn red.

'And now, you foul fiend,' Santa cried, 'practice your magic art and return these children to their former bodies.'

'I won't, I won't,' choked the witch.

'You will. Else I'll squeeze some Christmas spirit into you.'

Santa squeezed harder and harder on her skinny neck. Peggoty's face turned red, then blue, then green. Her tongue popped out. She gasped, 'I have it. I have the Christmas spirit.'

'I knew it would come to you. It comes to all of us at some time or other,' Santa said."

Yes, dear readers. That is the exact Christmas spirit that we're all hoping for, right? I'm going to choke you to death until you're ready to praise the season. Goodness gracious, is this a kids' book or a late-night cable drama?

If you're in the holiday and book-loving spirit, please link up with 5 Minutes for Books for this month's Children's Classics. (And you know you wanna check your local library's shelves for this doozy, right??)


Preparing the holiday book baskets way too early,



**How am I doing on my gratitude challenge?? Come check up on me here since I'll be adding new entries each day!**

this week's guffaws

I'm officially another year older now, but my 5th-grade-boy sense of humor hasn't aged a bit. Since I'm still feeling festive (and not hungover anymore, yay!), I've got a triple-decker guffaws for you tonight. Be prepared for some pretty low-brow humor...


ALL PUNS INTENDED

1. Two antennas met on a roof, fell in love and got married. The ceremony wasn't much, but the reception was excellent.

2. A jumper cable walks into a bar. The bartender says, "I'll serve you, but don't start anything."

3. Two peanuts walk into a bar, and one was a salted.

4. A dyslexic man walked into a bra.

5. A man walks into a bar with a slab of asphalt under his arm, and says: "A beer please, and one for the road."

6. Two cannibals are eating a clown. One says to the other: "Does this taste funny to you?"

7. "Doc, I can't stop singing The Green, Green Grass of Home." "That sounds like Tom Jones Syndrome." "Is it common?" "Well, It's Not Unusual."

8. Two cows are standing next to each other in a field. Daisy says to Dolly, "I was artificially inseminated this morning." "I don't believe you," says Dolly. "It's true; no bull!" exclaims Daisy.

9. An invisible man marries an invisible woman. The kids were nothing to look at either.

10. Deja Moo: The feeling that you've heard this bull before.

11. I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day, but I couldn't find any.

12. A man woke up in a hospital after a serious accident. He shouted, "Doctor, doctor, I can't feel my legs!" The doctor replied, "I know, I amputated your arms!"

13. I went to a seafood disco last week... and pulled a mussel.

14. What do you call a fish with no eyes? A fsh.

15. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. The one turns to the other and says, "Dam!"

16. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Not surprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.

17. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel, and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office, and asked them to disperse. "But why," they asked, as they moved off. "Because," he said. "I can't stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer."

18. A woman has twins, and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt, and is named 'Ahmal.' The other goes to a family in Spain; they name him 'Juan.' Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, "They're twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal."

19. Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him... a super-calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.

20. A dwarf, who was a mystic, escaped from jail. The call went out that there was a small medium at large.

21. And finally, there was the person who sent twenty different puns to his friends, with the hope that at least ten of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.

If you're done groaning now, how about this one?


THE CONFESSION

'Bless me Father, for I have sinned.
I have been with a loose girl'.

The priest asks, 'Is that you, little Joey Pagano?'

'Yes, Father, it is.'

'And who was the girl you were with?'

'I can't tell you, Father. I don't want to ruin her reputation'.

'Well, Joey, I'm sure to find out her name sooner or later so you may as well tell me now. Was it Tina Minetti?'

'I cannot say.'

'Was it Teresa Mazzarelli?'

'I'll never tell.'

'Was it Nina Capelli?'

'I'm sorry, but I cannot name her.'

'Was it Cathy Piriano?'

'My lips are sealed.'

'Was it Rosa DiAngelo, then?'

'Please, Father, I cannot tell you.'

The priest sighs in frustration. 'You're very tight lipped, and I admire that. But you've sinned and have to atone. You cannot be an altar boy now for 4 months. Now you go and behave yourself.'

Joey walks back to his pew, and his friend Franco slides over and whispers, 'What'd you get?'

'Four months vacation and five good leads.'

And finally, less joking and more fun facts, if you will.


TRIVIA

It takes your food seven seconds to get from your mouth to your stomach..

One human hair can support 3 kg (6.6 lb).

The average man's penis is three times the length of his thumb.

Humanthighbones are stronger than concrete.

A woman's heart beats faster than a man's.

There are about one trillion bacteria on each of your feet.

Women blink twice as often as men.

The average person's skin weighs twice as much as the brain.

Your body uses 300 muscles to balance itself when you are standing still.

If saliva cannot dissolve something, you cannot taste it..

Women will be finished reading this by now.

Men are still busy checking their thumbs.

Look away from the thumbs...


Have a laughter filled week,



**How am I doing on my gratitude challenge?? Come check up on me here since I'll be adding new entries each day!**