Tag: family

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culture life

Peeling Away

This will only make sense with the background information that I never wanted to buy a minivan.

I love my minivan. That statement, and the rest of this post, is less about my minivan and more about me – and minivans in general.

As I peel away the rough edges of my own pride I discover that I do not care about image like I used to. I did not even know that I cared about image, but in retrospect I did. This is not to say that I have no care for image, but that it is different than it had been.

Before I chose to get a minivan I had decided that I did not want that minivan image. Basically that was because the image is not popular. It truth there is nothing wrong with it. I hated all the arguments about SUV’s using too much gas. The fact is that the mid-sized SUV’s have about the same gas mileage as the average minivan. It’s not great mileage, but it’s no reason to choose a minivan over a mid-sized SUV (at least once the optional third row entered the Ford Explorer and Chevy Trailblazer class) because they could seat the same number of people and got no significant disadvantage in fuel efficiency and I might as well get the increased towing capacity and power of the SUV – besides the image thing.

When the time came that I was faced with the need to grow out of two carseats in the back of my sedan I changed my mind on the stance I had held that I would rather make car payments on an SUV than own a minivan free and clear. I made the wiser choice (financially speaking) and now I look back and realize that I have come to care less about the image, more in line with what I used to believe was already true. I have also came to wonder why I ever hoped to own an SUV rather than a minivan. Who wants to open the back door of an SUV (of any size) when they have the option of sliding doors on their van. That also makes me wonder why anyone ever made a minivan with hinge doors to the back (the older models of the very minivan I bought – Mazda MPV – did not have sliding doors) when sliding door are so functional/versatile and save so much space in my garage.

Today I am thankful, not so much that I have a minivan that I like, but more because I got to catch a glimpse of growth within myself which is always what I am striving for anyway.

Categories
life

Teacher

On the way home tonight Savannah told me she wanted to play baseball. When we got home it turned out that she meant golf. I got the clubs out for her and some wiffle balls and she started playing. Within 5 minutes Alyssa wants to play too. Savannah took it upon herself to instruct Alyssa in all the fine points of the game.

“Put the ball down there. Now hit it. . . Like that.”

Categories
life

Jail Break

I just love having two kids who are such good friends. Laura told me a great story that took place yesterday with Savannah and Alyssa. I just have to share how Savannah chose to play the protective big sister for Alyssa.

Alyssa was doing something that she was not supposed to do. Laura warned her that if she did it again she would have to go sit in her crib – she did it again. When Laura was taking Alyssa to her crib Savannah followed her down the stairs. Savannah was talking to herself saying things like “I’m going to go help my sister.” After Laura put Alyssa in the crib she went to do whatever random things she needed to do. Savannah went into the bedroom where Alyssa was while Laura was busy and pulled the reading chair in their room over to Alyssa’s crib and helped Alyssa out of her “prison cell.”

A few minutes later Laura peeked into the girls room to find Alyssa out of the crib playing with Savannah in the room. The chair was left right at the scene of the jail break.

Categories
life

New Addition

In preparation for our new addition to the family we have added a new addition to the family. Pictures can be seen here. It is our new car. Pictures tend to be of those features we are most proud of (read ‘those things that we would never have looked for, but which will almost certainly be useful’) such as the six-disc CD changer, the moon roof, the luggage rack and the towing package.

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life

Life

I spoke about life overcoming death. It just occurred to me that we have another instance of life replacing death as the focus of our existence. Later this year we will have another life to think about.

Categories
culture

Kernals of Truth

In “It takes a whole village – or does it?” I see some strong truths expressed that the family is the basic unit of society, but there is also a kernel of truth in the saying “it takes a village.” The village in which I raise my children will have an effect on how they grow up and what they learn – whether I like it or not.

I, like Hyrum, refuse to allow the village to become the primary teacher for my children. I’m sure that Hyrum would agree with me though that we must be careful in choosing the village in which we raise our children because it will have an effect. I consider that “it takes a village” when I choose the village and also when I choose to participate in shaping that village.

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life

Parents and Children

I went to a conference for three days this week and left Laura at home with the kids. According to the report when I got back, the kids were pretty good the first day but by the third day it was unofficial warfare. I guess there is no need to wonder if it is important to have Dad around. . .

Categories
life

The Web is Slower Than Life

Society has grown impatient generally because of how fast computers can get things done. I remember when waiting 30 seconds for a program to load on the computer was considered acceptably fast. Now I see people complaining when they do not notice any response from the computer within 10 seconds of them trying to do something on it. I thought that computers had made things generally faster.

I have fully immersed myself into this accelerated culture and I decided that I wanted to make my website more up-to-date by maintaining it as a blog so that I could put new thoughts up as often as they happened. That required that I restructure the site so when I got a break I did so. It took less than a week for me to completely restructure the site. That is when I started looking back at what had happened since I made the decision to change the site. Savannah got run over by a car in the library parking lot (thankfully she didn’t get hurt), Alyssa started walking, Laura got hit by a second car in the same library parking lot (no damage to the cars again) and I flew down to Albuquerque to see my new niece. All of that took place in about a week.

I guess the lesson that I learned as I looked back on all of that is that we like the speed of computers because life is fast. No matter how fast computers get life is faster. The reason that we get impatient as we start becoming accustomed to the instantaneous lifestyle is that we forget that the speed of the computer gives us only the illusion of going at the pace of life and not actually the reality of going as fast as life. We’re still behind even at the speed of life.

If the speed of light is “c” (from e=m*c^2) then the speed of life, “l”, must be close to “c^2” thus e=m*l . . .