We missed Dadda!

Jay attended a conference in Savannah, Georgia on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  It was the first time he's been gone all night since Henley was born, and we were so glad to pick him up Saturday afternoon. 

When the weather is nice, Henley and I will take walks outside around the time Jay comes home in the afternoons, so she has become accustomed to looking for Dadda's car.  While outside with her Thursday afternoon, she pointed to every vehicle that drove by and shouted, "Dadda!"  Even though she often does this, I'm usually able to tell her that the vehicle is not Dadda's but that his car will be coming soon.  On Thursday, I kept telling her that Dadda had to work all night and wouldn't be home.  When we walked back to the front side of the house, she saw Jay's car (we had driven him to work Thursday) and, of course, shouted once again, "Dadda!"

Although I managed to get everything done while Jay was gone, I definitely missed him.  Things seem to run much more smoothly when he's around to provide assistance.

My parents spent Friday night and Saturday with us, which was really nice.  Henley loves her Mama, but she understandably grows tired of just being with me.  She was so excited to spend some time with Grandpa and Grandma, and I enjoyed watching her play with them.  This was their first overnight visit with us since Henley was very little.  Just having them here to watch Henley while I went to the restroom, took a shower, etc., made everything a bit more relaxed for me.

We drove to Queens to pick up Jay Saturday afternoon, and I kept telling Henley that we were going to get Dadda.  She was so excited when we pulled into the parking lot at Queens and when she saw Jay walk up to the car.  I was excited, too. 

Henley's Playlist

So far, Henley doesn't like to watch cartoons on TV; however, about three weeks ago, she started wanting to watch videos on the computer.  I can't recall what we were doing at the time that we came across our first Sesame Street music video, but I do recall that she LOVED watching it and wanted to view it again and again.  Jay and I grew tired of watching just one video, so we started selecting other suggested videos for her to watch.  She seems to know right away whether or not she's going to like a video and very clearly lets us know when she doesn't like one.  At this point, we have eleven Sesame Street videos that she really likes and all but two of them are music videos.  Today, I finally took the time to create a personal YouTube channel so that I could start a Playlist for Henley's videos.  Now, we'll be able to just select the Playlist and won't have to click on links to each video.

When Henley wants to see her videos, she points to the computer and says, "Vibeo!"  Of course, she doesn't get to watch them every time she makes this request; however, she gets really excited when we say okay, which is probably 3 times a day.

As a result of watching the Sesame Street videos, Henley now loves Elmo, which sounds something like "Belmo" when she says it.  We went to Target the day before Valentine's, and I was trying to find a small toy to purchase for her.  As soon as she saw a tiny stuffed Elmo, she became very excited.  Thus, the stuffed Elmo and an Elmo book were her Valentine's gifts from Jay and me.

Last Night's Dream

I haven't dreamed about teaching in quite a while, but I did last night.  The dream seemed very real, too.  One of my classes had a test scheduled for the day about which I dreamed.  Although I had prepared the test and placed a copy of it in my bag, I didn't realize that I had overlooked making copies of the test until I checked my bag just before class began.  Knowing that the clock was ticking for my students to take the test, I rushed out of the room to the nearest room with a copier (and it seems like someone from NCSU was there to help me).  Unfortunately, the copies were printing way too darkly for students to be able to read the problems, so I quickly left that room and headed for another one with a bigger and better copier (and I think that someone from Queens was there to help me).  This time, the copies came out of the printer all messed up.  I knew that minutes were passing and students were barely going to have time to complete the test.  I also knew that most would be unhappy if I had to postpone taking the test for a class period since they already had studied.  As I tried to figure out what I should do, I woke up.

It's true that the dream is not particularly interesting.  Nothing completely crazy happened.  It's just surprising to me that the topic of last night's dream was making copies of a test for students to take.  What brought that on?

Such Variety

While eating my Pacific Rose apple earlier today, I was thinking about how many apple options are available at the grocery store nowadays.  When I was a child, we primarily shopped at Winn Dixie, and I seem to recall a very limited selection of apples: Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, and Granny Smith.  There might have been a few more, but I don't remember them.  I never was a fan of the Red Delicious apples because they always seemed a bit chalky in texture and tasted bland.  My favorites today include the Jazz, Pink Lady or Cripps Pink, and Honeycrisp.  I recently tried the Opal apple for the first time (simply because I thought the vibrant yellow color was interesting), and the apple was okay but definitely not a new favorite and certainly not worth the high price per pound. 

With such variety now available at the local grocery store, it's easy to now enjoy an apple a day!

New Blog Title: Think and Wonder

I decided to change the title of my blog homepage.  The new title is a sentence in Dr. Seuss's Oh, the Thinks You Can Think, and it seems to more accurately reflect the type of blogs I post than the old title did (even though the old title perhaps is a bit catchier).  I like having a place to jot down some of the things about which I spend time thinking and wondering.

Finding Value in Cleaning House

A few weeks ago, I saw for the first time the following quote, "A clean house is a sign of a wasted life."  A picture of a woman scrubbing her tub had the statement written above her.  To my surprise, there are t-shirts, bags, buttons, aprons, etc. available for purchase that have this statement prominently featured on them.  Thus, I must conclude that many people agree with the statement, and I'm guessing that some of those people look to the statement with satisfaction when their homes are not clean.

I disagree with the statement for many reasons.  Many individuals earn their livings by cleaning homes, and their work is valuable.  I happily clean my own home and do not believe that I'm wasting my life by doing so.  On the contrary, I find the act of cleaning to be very beneficial.  While cleaning, I have time to think about problems and solutions to those problems.  I have the opportunity to get some exercise when mopping floors, for example.  I also have the great satisfaction of starting and completing a task, and I can really see the results of my labor when I'm finished.  After cleaning, I get to enjoy a clutter-free house for a period of time, which always improves my mood.  In addition, the more I clean, the easier it is to keep a clean house.

I'm sure I'll never have a spotless house, but I hope I'll always find value in cleaning my home.  Instead of thinking of a clean house as a sign of a wasted life, perhaps we should simply think of it as a clean house.