7 Quick Takes: Vol. 3

1. I read a beautiful post this week from Kelly at Student of the Year, a nice reflection on winter. Give yourself a treat and read it. You'll probably find yourself hoping for a little more cold weather so you can snuggle up with blankets, pillows, and people.

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2. This is sort of reverse book review. As in, I'm looking for people who have read NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children, by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman, since I have not...yet. I admit that all I know of it so far is the blurb I read that goes like this: "[The] central premise is that many of modern society’s strategies for nurturing children, from toddlers to teens, are backfiring – because key twists in the science have been overlooked." I hope to get the book soon and give it a read. Just that blurb alone seems to match many of my recent thoughts about raising kids. I've become increasingly convinced that much of what we do in the name of our kids is a load of crap. My new insight is that we need to treat our children like people we love instead of like people we need to raise every minute of every day. If you are familiar with this book, please let me know what you think.

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3. We watched Inglourious Basterds the other night. Wow. It was quite different than I expected. What did you think of it?

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4. This week, we say goodbye to J. D. Salinger. When I was growing up, possibly the most dog-eared book in the house, beside The Red Pony, was The Catcher in the Rye. Hats off to The Onion (America's Finest News Source), for the best tribute to Salinger I've seen in the past two days. I am looking forward to re-reading the Salinger canon, and I've done my share of speculating: maybe we'll get some more treasures published posthumously? Wouldn't that be something?

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5. My 3-year old demanded The Beatles this morning in the car. Further proof that I may, in fact, be doing something right with these kids. If she grows up to read The Catcher in the Rye and The Red Pony, I can call my work with her a success. One out of five ain't bad.

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6. I still haven't sent out my Holiday cards. I purchased them, addressed them, and sealed them. I have yet to put stamps on them. If you're in my address book, look for a great picture of the kids sometime between now and July 4th. I'll do my best.

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7. On the way to school this morning, my kids were loud. This is absolutely nothing new, of course, but I was trying to be more accepting of it this time. They were having a great time, being goofy and fighting and telling me fascinating things like "Mom, did you know what the Vanderveer Collection is? A collection of DIAMONDS!" and elbowing each other and generally being both hilarious and exasperating. Lots of times, I yell at them in the morning because the noise is hard to take. This morning, I tried really, really hard to think about what my car is going to be like in another few years when I have teenagers. Silent and sullen, I'm guessing. I am sure I will miss this mayhem then. So I just tried to ride the wave.

I had also driven them to school in my PJ's, so I didn't get out of the car this time, just pulled over and let them tumble out in a big pile before they disentangled their arms and legs and backpacks and lunchboxes, blew them kisses, told them I loved them, told them to have a good day, and then sped away with my last remaining tot. The sudden silence made me laugh...which prompted my 3-year old to look at my strangely. And now, I am spending the morning still in PJ's, in a warm house, watching Flipper with Tallulah. And blogging. Noise and quiet: both are beautiful.

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Go visit Conversion Diary for the original 7 Quick Takes, and links to others.

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