Welcome to Notwithsatnding, Population: Crazy

This place with have you believing in ghosts, talking to spiders, forgettting your pants, and sticking bird seeds to the living room windows. Here you will be able to fish for the Girt Pike in a back yard pond,  take a walk with a woman, her dead husband, and her speechless sister, whom everyone refers to simply, as Mrs. Mac's sister, and hear the funniest (and most disgusting) story involving a tea kettle that has ever been told.

This book is written almost as a series of short stories, each chapter an introduction to new people and circumstances. The characters and their lives intertwine and touch throughout the book "painting a picture of an entire community". The is kind of community where everyone knows each other, and their business.

Some parts of this book I loved, some parts I did not. This book will not change your life, but it will made you smile. It will also break your heart a little. It is a clever mixture of comic relief and real life sadness and tragedy. It is very human. You can picture these people in your mind as you are presented with one small sliver of each - all you are given to form an impression. 

But the thing that struck me was in the afterword at the end of the book, when the author says this:

"Villages were proper communities, with all that entails in terms of social support. These days, although a small core of sociable and helpful types is always to be found, village families often live in complete isolation from each other, buttonholed by their television and computer screens, and getting in their cars to go and see their friends elsewhere."

Food for thought.

Our world has changed. Along with the many wonders of advancing technology we are losing something so basic. We can talk to people on the other side of the world with the push of a button, while never getting to know the perfect strangers sitting right beside us. So read, or don't. It really doesn't matter.

smartie pants and bright pink paint

I resorted to a reward (bribery). Last night as I was putting Nya to bed I told her that I would take her to the store and let her choose a treat first thing after breakfast if she slept in her bed all night long. 

At 2 a.m. when she woke up I reminded her about the treat. 

She did it! Consequently, we were to be found in the candy isle of Walmart bright and early this morning..........

 

where Nya found the biggest pack of Smarties they make. A deal is a deal!

Later on she helped me paint her bed. This color is BRIGHT, people! I am trying to not freak out about it. I am hoping the vision will come together. My mission: to infuse color into the most boring girls bedroom in the history of interior design (so say my daughters). Mission accomplished. I just hope it all comes together! And if you come over and you happen to wander up to the girls room, tell me you love it, or I may just cry!

sleep sweet serenade

Friday the kids and I started spring break a little early and spent the day rearranging the girls room. They helped me lift all the heavy furniture and move it around, several different times, into many different arrangements. We finally found one we all could agree on. It required that we edit what was in there so that what we really needed would fit. While we were at it I thought it might be a good time to get Nya out of the closet, and into her {little} big girl bed. She was so excited! She has been in the crib, which has been in the closet, for her whole life. I thought the little bed would fit right in where the crib had been - it was about 3 inches too long. Luckily for our aching backs it fit into the bedroom, in the agreed upon arrangement, with the other beds! It did remind me of the movie "Annie" with all the beds lined up in a row.

"Little girls 

Little girls

Everywhere I turn I can see them 

Little girls 

Little girls 

Night and day 

I eat, sleep and breathe them 

Some women are dripping with diamonds 

Some women are dripping with pearls 

Lucky me! Lucky me! 

Look at what I'm dripping with 

Little girls." 

But unlike Miss Hannigan, I truly love dripping with little girls.

I was apprehensive as to how Nya would do. She has always slept really, really well. But out of the crib - would she stay in bed, or climb out a thousand times? We said prays, tucked her in bed, she looked at books for a couple minutes and then.... asleep!

I had my suspicions that that was much too easy. When I went up to bed at 11:30, I checked on her and as I did she rolled over and right on out of bed. I picked her up and put her back in, but that was the beginning of a very long night, with Nya ending up in our bed, awake for most of the night.

First thing Saturday morning we got to work adding sides to her bed. I was sure that this would make all the difference, that she would feel more secure, and not fall out. Besides, isn't the first night in a new place or bed the worst with little ones?

I was very wrong. Like the night before, she went down like a dream, but ended up, yet again, in our bed. After another sleepless night we decided to reassemble the crib, and put her back! In the process, I broke the plastic clips that hold it together.

{Nya - exhausted and napping after 2 sleepless nights.}

 I did, however, finally get a start on the girls quilts.  

 And tomorrow Nya and I are going to paint her bed Coral Serenade.

Please wish us luck, cross your fingers, and say a little prayer that she will sleep tonight.......in her own bed! Or we might just be getting the screw driver and the duct tape out in the middle of the night tonight! (for the crib, of course)