Electronic quiet time, anyone?

Saw this on Planningfamily.com:

"On average, children two to five years old spend 32 hours a week in front of a TV and they will have watched an average of 8,000 murders before they finish elementary school. Is this replacing healthy activities such as playing outside, eating dinner as a family, reading, and building family unity? Well-planned family time can be a foundation for joy and influence to last a lifetime. Family time provides your children with feelings of love, security, stability, and support.

"If you are trying to conceive, or are pregnant, the TV could still be getting in the way of your relationship. The average adult watches more than 28 hours of TV a week (that's two straight months a year)! If you're stuck in a rut, if TV has taken over, or if you aren't sure what activities will keep everyone happy, here are some helpful hints for fun family-time activities. Put the remote down and play on!"

Wow - disturbing stats. Do you think that's true? Needless to say, I promptly printed out the "backyard games" list, so Frisbee, here we come!

~Ally

Reading for us gals, especially

Good, quick read for those of us bogged down by too much to do and no idea where to start.

Reminds me of focusing on the important things I most love, and not frittering away my time - and more importantly, my energy - on things I "should" do (as deemed by myself or others).

Enjoy!

~Ally

Prayer

Prayer for Our Daughters

by Mark Jarman

May they never be lonely at parties
Or wait for mail from people they haven't written
Or still in middle age ask God for favors
Or forbid their children things they were never forbidden.

May hatred be like a habit they never developed
And can't see the point of, like gambling or heavy drinking.
If they forget themselves, may it be in music
Or the kind of prayer that makes a garden of thinking.

May they enter the coming century
Like swans under a bridge into enchantment
And take with them enough of this century
To assure their grandchildren it really happened.

May they find a place to love, without nostalgia
For some place else that they can never go back to.
And may they find themselves, as we have found them,
Complete at each stage of their lives, each part they add to.

May they be themselves, long after we've stopped watching.
May they return from every kind of suffering
(Except the last, which doesn't bear repeating)
And be themselves again, both blessed and blessing.

"Prayer for Our Daughters" by Mark Jarman, from Bone Fires: New and Selected Poems. © Sarabande Books, 2011.

loving this baby-to-be

3/13/11 - day one of month six. baby growing and kicking and doing little gymnastic feats every day. she loves Mexican food and fruit and taking naps on the couch. or wait, is that Mommy? she also loves Daddy, who sometimes will read to her or poke her and she thinks that is so funny. she also likes coming fully awake at 1 a.m. and 3 a.m., unfortunately, just like her mama. :)

so happy.

~Al

(both photos by Scott Snyder.)

A Lullaby Me and the Bun Just Love

There is Only One

by Twila Paris

There is only one person like you

In all of this great big world

And you are just who God made you to be

Whether a boy or a girl

Whether you are black or white

Or some beautiful color in-between

No matter your shape or size

You're as perfect as anything I've ever seen

You Mom and your Dad

They are so glad

You are part of their family

There is only one

Who loves you more

He is your Father in heaven

He is the Lord

Early Spring

Lines Written in Early Spring
by William Wordsworth

I heard a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

To her fair works did nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.

Through primrose tufts, in that sweet bower,
The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;
And 'tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.

The birds around me hopped and played:
Their thoughts I cannot measure,
But the least motion which they made,
It seemed a thrill of pleasure.

The budding twigs spread out their fan,
To catch the breezy air;
And I must think, do all I can,
That there was pleasure there.

If this belief from heaven be sent,
If such be Nature's holy plan,
Have I not reason to lament
What man has made of man?

~

I love this poem and its sentiments, though it is nothing like Spring here. Still deep in the throes of winter, it seems. But I can imagine. I do wish Wordsworth had not ended on the dismal note though. I love the line, "I heard a thousand blended notes."

~Ally

It's a Girl!

Sugar and spice and everything nice. And EVERYTHING NICE! I am a lucky little mommy.

~Ally