by Heather Plett | May 27, 2005 | Uncategorized
1. If you burn a pot of lentils, dump them in the garbage, and then carry the garbage bag out to the trash bin, the bag feels exactly like a poopy diaper. How do I know this? Don’t ask.
2. Raw onions turn Maddie into a monkey. Her words, not mine. She grabbed a piece of the onion I was chopping, said “um yummy” and popped it into her mouth. When the taste registered in her brain, she made a delightfully disgusted face and spit it out. On the way back from the garbage can, she said “those are yucky! They make me turn into a MONKEY!”
3. If you burn a BIG pot of lentils, even though it LOOKS like the burnt stuff is only at the bottom, you can taste it all the way up at the top. Again, don’t ask.
4. Marcel thinks “wench” is an acceptable name to call his sisters. Hmmm.
5. She may be nine, wise beyond her years, and know WAY more about pop stars than I do, but Nikki still lets me in on little secrets now and then 🙂 But, once again, don’t ask, ’cause I WON’T TELL!
6. There is at least ONE person on this earth whose children use the word “boring” as often as mine. (Cheers Kim!)
7. When you want your husband to come home early so that you can go to the store to buy more lentils, he’s sure to show up late. (Oops… just heard the door open – he’s home so I’ve gotta run to the store!)
P.S. Bet ya wanna know what all the lentils are for! Maybe I’ll tell ya later.
by Heather Plett | May 26, 2005 | Uncategorized
Yesterday started with an apology. It was mine. The day before, after another difficult conversation with an employee who has trouble accepting responsibility for her actions, I got impatient and snapped at her. I shouldn’t have. Though I went home feeling completely justified for my actions, sometime during the night, I realized that, if I wanted her to accept responsibility for HER actions, then I had to accept responsibility for MINE. So I ate crow and apologized. I received no apology in return.
Yesterday ended with a rebuke. I got a letter from someone at our church who was “troubled” by something I’d said the last time I spoke in church. She wants to meet with me to talk about it.
Two bookends for an otherwise ordinary day. Somehow, the bookends overshadowed everything else in between. It was a productive day – I accomplished lots on my “to do” list at work, and led a very productive leadership meeting at church – and yet the only things I can think about are the two things that were difficult.
I like to think of myself as a fairly “evolved” person. I’m fairly emotionally mature, I have a reasonably healthy self esteem and don’t worry TOO much about what people think of me. I’ve been a manager and mother long enough that I’m used to making some unpopular decisions that people don’t always like me for. For the most part, I stand on my principles and argue my opinion even when it’s unpopular.
All of this is true, yet when two people disapprove of me in one day, it still cuts to the core. I could argue that, in both cases, I was justified and what I said wasn’t necessarily wrong (even though I could have said it in a better way). I could get self-righteous and say “too bad what YOU think.” But, no matter how I argue it and search for self-justification, it still hurts to be “out of favour”.
I’ve never been a particularly “popular” person, but I’ve never been “unpopular” either. I’ve gone through life being at least mildly liked by most people I deal with. This experience has challenged me to wonder…what if I felt I had to stand up for something that was particularly unpopular, and yet I felt that ethically and morally I couldn’t walk away? What if it meant that people would dislike me and say awful things about me?
I have great admiration for those people who have changed the world by standing up for unpopular things. I’m grateful for those who have stood against slavery, apartheid, oppression, patriarchal governments, injustice, wars, and religious intolerance despite being the objects of persecution and emotional abuse. I just wonder… could I do the same? Could I risk unpopularity for a cause? Could you?
Yesterday’s incidents will blow over. I’ll talk to both people again and smooth things over and we’ll continue to have relationships, of sorts. Neither of them was very serious, in the grand scheme of things. But I can’t help wondering what cause would be important enough for me to “lay down my pride” for.
by Heather Plett | May 25, 2005 | Uncategorized
Maddie walks into the laundry room where I’m folding laundry (yes, it may be hard to believe, but I actually do that once in awhile), puts her hand to her forehead, salutes me and says “we code in for duty”. It took me awhile to put the gesture and words together and realize she was ACTUALLY saying “reporting for duty!”
In other kid news, my oldest 2 daughters are growing up WAY too fast. They both bought teen magazines on the weekend, and yesterday they spent a few hours cutting out pictures of a bunch of famous people (hillary duff, chad michael murray, simple plan… you get the picture) and pasting them on their walls. Yikes! I’m not ready to see a bunch of heart throbs up on my 9 and 7 year old’s walls! It seems like they’re barely past Elmo and Big Bird!
What was particularly frightening was that I only knew about half the people, and, with voices that belied their pride in knowing MORE than mom, they had to tell me who the other ones were. Sheesh! Time to brush up on my pop culture! On the other hand – why bother? From here on in, I just have to accept the fact that I’m a “has-been”. (It’s been a LONG time since Andy Gibb and Leif Garrett were heart throbs!)
At least I still know more than Maddie! But how long will THAT last?
by Heather Plett | May 23, 2005 | Uncategorized
I got $50 from Marcel’s parents for my birthday, and now I get to spend money selfishly. Woohoo!
Wanna help me? My absolute favourite way to spend “selfish money” is to buy books. But I can’t quite decide what to buy.
So… tell me what you think. What are the best books you’ve read lately? Which ones do you thing are absolute “must haves” for a lover of books? I mean the kind that you just can’t bear to get from the library because you NEED to have them on your OWN shelf.
I’m looking for ideas – I’m sure you can help! (I’m open to different genres, but I’m not particularly fond of sci-fi or fantasy.) I’ll tell you what I’ve read lately, so you don’t have to include those in the list…
– right now I’m reading “The Red Tent”
– I just finished “Dance of the Dissident Daughter”
– before that I read “Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith”
– and in the last couple of months… “Generous Orthodoxy”, “The Different Drum”, “Prodigal Summer”, “Good to Great”, “Life of Pi” and some others I can’t remember.
(On the other hand, once I finish with the baton Cuppa passed, I may decide to buy cds instead. But for now lets stick with books 🙂
by Heather Plett | May 20, 2005 | Uncategorized
Check out my sister’s blog! In honour of my birthday, she posted some great pictures of the two of us throughout the years. I’m all choked up! I have the best sister in the world!
(In case you’re wondering which one’s me, I’m the more “vertically challenged” of the two 🙂
The bottom picture is the most poignant – it’s the two of us with our dad, whom we both miss terribly.
by Heather Plett | May 20, 2005 | Uncategorized
Yup, it’s my birthday. I turn 39 today. I am now entering the last year of my thirties (that sounded like it should have been accompanied by Twilight Zone music!).
To celebrate, I hopped on my bike and rode like the wind (okay, so it was only a light breeze) all the way to work. What an invigorating way to start the first day of the last year of your third decade on earth. (yikes! now we should be moving into the Rocky soundtrack!) Thirty seconds into the ride, I was almost killed by some idiot in a car who thought he could cut me off because it was just a bike, but that didn’t deter my enjoyment of the ride. I made better time than I normally do on the bus!
It’s a beautiful day today, the sun is shining, there was no wind on my face, it’s the Friday before a long weekend, I have a new bike that rides like a dream, we picked up our shiny red car yesterday, I issued a big press release yesterday and this morning the media is responding (that’s always fun – watch for us on The National tonight :-), two of my favourite people are joining us for a birthday barbecue tonight, I got a good night’s sleep, Marcel cleaned the house yesterday (or at least got a decent start)… life is good! (is there a “Pollyanna” soundtrack?)
Oh, and there is NOTHING better than having your kids phone you at work in the morning to sing happy birthday, each in their own unique way. Julie’s was heartfelt and sincere, Nikki’s was a unique rendition that included something about stepping in horse poo, and Maddie’s was mostly a repetition of the first line, throwing in the word “Mommy” at some point for variation.
