- & Other Things She Taught Me Along The Way- by Ruth Reichl
Well I'm finally joining the neighborhood book club. I've been meaning to for months but I never seem to figure out which book they are reading or where they are meeting until the last minute. So today my neighbor brought over this book so I could read it before the get together tomorrow night. Lucky for me it was nice and short and didn't take me long to read. It was a decent read, definitely not going on my list of favorites but I wasn't bored either.
The book was a little scattered but I like the underlying ideas. It's about the pressure women born toward the beginning of the century felt to conform to certain ideas of womanhood and how they struggled to give their daughters something more. It was interesting to think about what the pressure to live within limitations especially after the war and depression could do to a woman's happiness and mental health. I think there is still a lot of that today.
My biggest irritation with feminism is that it sometimes seems to me that it's no longer about women making choices. We get pulled so many directions and get told we can do it all when that isn't reality. You can't be the perfect mother, wife, business woman, housekeeper, etc. while wearing high heels and having a beautifully decorated house. I do know a few women who make it look like they do it all but it's a facade. You have to make choices everyday and those choices aren't easy and aren't always respected. (Story of every woman's life right?)
I'm a terrible cook and I hate even trying. I'm not a great housekeeper and I try to juggle a career while working from home and being a full time mom. The balance is never totally right. Sometimes I'm doing great at my career and I carry around terrible mommy guilt that I can't attend to Red Fish every minute. Other times (like right now) I think I'm really engaged in being a mother and I'm totally uninspired as an artist. I get disorganized and I fall behind in my work and that's frustrating. I don't know if the balance will ever be right completely. On the other hand I've gotten to do a lot of really cool things in my life. I've had some incredible opportunities and always been encouraged by my family, husband, and friends to shoot for whatever I want in life. Maybe thinking I can do it all isn't always a bad thing, I just get tired of the pressure sometimes. I wonder how the next generation of women's opportunities will be effected by our choices and what opportunities await them.
Kiddo A was not such a fan of the ride. It was pretty long and I think she started to get sick.
Three days until I see my brother! This is the last time my family was together (Two Fish was taking the picture.) It was before my brother J left on his mission over three years ago.
The Catcher In The Rye- by JD Salinger
Slaughter House Five - by Kurt Vonnegut
My cousin L came to visit again and we had a great day at the park. Horray for the return of summer!
Red Fish working hard on some art projects for the grandpas today. It was intense work.
We've had a great week with cousin E. Today was the final performances for her music camp she has been attending so we all went to watch her. She did a great job!
It was Red Fish's first concert. I was really nervous about bringing her but she was a perfect angel the whole time. She loves music and she loved knowing that E was up there playing. Plus the concert was pretty short so Red Fish just soaked it up.
We have been having fun all week. We went out to eat, went swimming, played go fish for art, and had a movie night in our pjs. We watched Hook. How has it been almost 20 years since that was made? That made me feel old. Red Fish has pretty much just been soaking up the extra attention. She is going to be devastated when E goes home. During the day while E has been at her camp Red Fish goes around the house calling "Wuuuuuvaaaaa! Wuva!" (It's her name for cousin E.)
Today was a rough day. Red Fish hasn't gotten enough stimulation this week due to the never ending rain and me feeling under the weather. Twice this week she has resorted to using "finger paint au natural" all over her room during her naptime. SO GROSS-Motherhood is a dirty job. Then today during the two minutes I was in the bathroom she went upstairs, got into a closet, opened my supposedly childproof art kit and dumped all of my seperated, organized beads out and sprinkled them around the room. Then she painted the wall with a little rubber cement. She also ripped a key off my laptop today and threw a plate of food against the wall. If I don't plan at least one really stimulating fun activity a day she pretty much goes crazy. We have a list of activities I plan to try and get to every week during the summer. This week we've really only accomplished two. We went swimming at the dive shop with Two Fish again last night (it's lovely because it's really ridiculously warm like a giant bathtub.) Then this afternoon the sun came out finally for a couple hours, so we hurried outside and I let her paint the back patio with washable paints.
My Mom has always wanted to run through the fountains at this nearby outdoor mall. She finally has a grandchild old enough to do it with her. So on Saturday we went out to lunch and ran through the fountain. The force of the water knocked Red Fish over so she was a little timid but as long as someone was holding her she had a blast!
- & Other Things She Taught Me Along The Way- by Ruth Reichl
Yes this is the world's tiniest pink wetsuit. Grandpa bought it for her right after she was born. She is a natural born diver- do you see her giant stride entry? =-)
She loved seeing all of Two Fish's gear and swimming around with him a little before he went down.
