Month: February 2003

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A Belated Welcome

It occurs to me that I have grossly erred in neglecting to officially announce the addition of a wonderful new blog to the offerings in cyberspace. Please allow me to introduce my youngest sibling, Andrew (aka Andy or Uncle Andy around our house). Today happens to be his birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDREW!

My relationship with Andrew has always been a bit different than my interactions w/my sister and other brother, partly by virtue of the fact that there is quite a large span of years between our ages. He is nine years younger and I honestly cannot remember ever really “fighting” with Andrew in the way that siblings typically do. I clearly remember his arrival in our family and felt, at the ripe and experienced age of nine, that I was sort of a second little mommy to him. I dearly loved helping care for him as a baby and young child and thought he was the sweetest little guy in the world. As we grew older I very much enjoyed the ability to take him on “movie dates” and such since I could drive while he was still in elementary school.

These days we have long talks both in person and via phone which are very precious to me and which keep me in tune with the life of a college student and young single guy, something I don’t have quite as much interaction with as I used to. He puts things in perspective for me sometimes, as he tends to be more laid back than I. And he is a great and very fun uncle to our children, besides being in general just a very likeable, friendly guy. I am very thankful for the blessing Andy is in my life as well as the life of our family.

I anticipate that his blog will be a fun, fresh read for many of us, and I am thrilled he has begun this new venture. So, enjoy, everyone! (I will add that his page is currently down but should be operational again shortly.)

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The Cost of Doing Nothing

The prime minister of Australia weighs in on Iraq. I found his basic statement of the doctrine of containment as applied to the Cold War, and the reason why it should not be applied today, very effective.

The view, validly held, was that because both sides had weapons of mass destruction, the potential human cost of military action by the West and the Soviet Union at the time of Hungary in 1956, or Czechoslovakia in 1968, would have been infinitely greater than the human cost (bad though it was) in leaving dictatorial Soviet-backed regimes in power there.

Then, the potential cost of doing something was greater than the cost of doing nothing. Now, in the case of Iraq, the potential cost of doing nothing is clearly much greater than the cost of doing something.

If Iraq isn’t effectively disarmed, not only could she use her chemical and biological weapons against her own people again and also other countries, but other rogue states will be encouraged to believe that they too can join the weapons of mass destruction league. Proliferation of chemical, biological and, indeed, nuclear weapons will multiply the likelihood of terrorist groups laying hands on such arms. The consequences for mankind would be horrific.

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Pop Culture

So there we were, on the couch (Jay and I) having an adult conversation. It was around 5pm and our first opportunity today to really talk together, as I had headed off to help hostess a baby shower almost immediately after church. I had recently returned home and we were enjoying a few minutes of rest before the supper rush began.

Well it seems Abigail got it into her head that she really wanted some of the dainty little cookies I had baked for the shower and so she started begging us for a taste. We told her she would have to wait till after dinner. As soon as she heard this she decided dinner had to happen RIGHT NOW! So she began asking us to get supper ready. Well, we generally don’t dine at 5pm around here and so we asked her to please wait, while we turned our attention back to finishing our conversation. All was quiet for a few moments and we relished the brief interlude. We soon learned the reason for the quiet when our two little redheaded children reappeared in the living room, each bearing a poptart with a few bites taken out.

“See??” Abigail exclaimed, “We got our supper!”

Now normally such behavior would not be overlooked in our household. It is not generally acceptable around here for children to rummage in the pantry for food without first consulting their parents. However, we were both so exhausted that we felt almost unable to protest.

“Ok, go sit at the table to eat your poptarts,” said Jay, smiling broadly. I could see the normal order of things slipping away before my eyes but I was too tired to even comment.

Four little feet skipped happily into the kitchen and two tiny bottoms obediently plopped themselves into their booster seats. When the well balanced meal was finished, Abigail again made her request for cookies. Her desire was granted (yes, I am ashamed to admit the parental units were STILL on the couch, talking!) and being the resourceful girl of 4 years that she is, she helped herself and Jonathan to one cookie each. She also very thoughtfully set their cups of milk on the table for them to drink.

In a few more minutes, Abigail returned to the living room to tell us “We have finished our supper! I’m going to wash my hands now. You’ll need to wash Jonathan’s hands and face before he gets down from the table.”

Pretty nifty, eh? So, how soon do you think she’ll be ready for babysitting? I figure as soon as she can get the diaper-changing thing down, we should be good to go out for an evening and leave her in charge!

As an aside, it should be noted that the lazy parents did drag themselves away from their frivolous conversation to attend to the needs of the household. The first thing we did was to all enjoy another supper together, this time featuring all four food groups!

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Long Time No Blog…

…and it’s not as though I’m feeling inspired to write anything new at this moment. I just feel we need to make some sort of explanation for our long absence from Blogdom. Life has seemed extremely busy and I guess we have felt uninspired!! We thank our faithful readers for your patience with us and apologize for the dearth of entries. Hopefully sometime soon, we will return to regular blogging. Take care…