We live in a very interesting neighborhood. It was built in the early 1950's and some of our neighbors have brought up their families here and are now in their 70's and 80's. At the end of the block, in the sidewalk, you can see where some children wrote the year in the cement - 1953. So we live in a little piece of post world war II history - we were the suburbs.
While that's interesting, the part I like about our neighborhood is what I can see from my front yard. From my front yard I can see the mansion that is a block over, the city park (that used to be a YMCA), regular apartments and I think some section 8 (government) low income apartments, a nursing home and a Mormon church. This is in addition to just the normal houses on our block. I still haven't figured out why there is a big mansion on the corner with a nice fence around it. It seems very out of place there. I actually hadn't realized how big it was until just recently and it's right across from the government housing. Very odd. One reason I wanted to live in this neighborhood was the great playground, pool and basketball court nearby. In the fall we watched lots of little kids practice football on the field and during most of the year there is a pretty active adult night basketball league on the outdoor courts. I also like having the nursing home near. I have visions of us making cards and visiting with the people there. I wonder who lives in the government housing and I wonder if it actually is government housing (I tried to look it up but wasn't very successful). The Mormon church is fascinating to me and they have quite a large congregation it seems (although I can't think of any Mormons that I know in San Antonio) - yesterday they were still going strong when we got home from church at 2 pm.
So hopefully we'll get to know all of our neighbors a little bit. I guess that means I should get out of my house and at least walk around the block every once in a while.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Friday, January 12, 2007
Doggy Inspiration
Normally stories about dogs in our area are pretty sad. We have quite a few stray dogs that wander around. However, recently I saw two encouraging dog incidents as I drove around.
The first incident bucks the stereotype of dog vs. mailman. As I was driving around last week I saw a group of dogs (about five or six) that were in a backyard behind a chainlink fence. They were all very excited about something and pawing over each other to get up the side of the fence. Then I realized that they were greeting the mailman! It looked like the mailman had something for them (who knows what it was - but they obviously wanted it). So, it looks like there may be peace on earth after all! If the mailcarrier and the dog can find peace maybe the rest of us can too.
Yesterday as I was driving down a major thoroughfare I saw a man walking his small dog. Nothing too unusual about that. However, as I looked closer I realized that this little guy was missing his front right leg. He had a leash on like any other dog and you could barely tell that he was missing his leg. He was just enjoying his walk. It's amazing what can be compensated for if we are willing to try and overcome.
So, I normally do not pay much attention to the pet world (because I'm allergic to most of it) but I thought these two incidents were worth mentioning. Who knows what you'll see on the side of the road today!
The first incident bucks the stereotype of dog vs. mailman. As I was driving around last week I saw a group of dogs (about five or six) that were in a backyard behind a chainlink fence. They were all very excited about something and pawing over each other to get up the side of the fence. Then I realized that they were greeting the mailman! It looked like the mailman had something for them (who knows what it was - but they obviously wanted it). So, it looks like there may be peace on earth after all! If the mailcarrier and the dog can find peace maybe the rest of us can too.
Yesterday as I was driving down a major thoroughfare I saw a man walking his small dog. Nothing too unusual about that. However, as I looked closer I realized that this little guy was missing his front right leg. He had a leash on like any other dog and you could barely tell that he was missing his leg. He was just enjoying his walk. It's amazing what can be compensated for if we are willing to try and overcome.
So, I normally do not pay much attention to the pet world (because I'm allergic to most of it) but I thought these two incidents were worth mentioning. Who knows what you'll see on the side of the road today!
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Mr./Mrs. Fix It?
Once upon a time I helped put together a marriage conference for all of our friends. There were 12 women who attended and 6 ladies who served as the "marriage" panel. It was a pretty powerful weekend. Anyway, part of our focus that weekend was about misplaced and unspoken expectations hurting a marriage. Recently I have been discovering why some things never happen around our new house - and it's all because of expectations.
In my house growing up my Dad was Mr. Fix It. He really can fix most everything and does (unless it requires special knowledge). However, in my husbands family his mom fixed everything. Somehow, both my husband and I managed to learn almost nothing about fixing anything while we were growing up. (Probably because we expected our spouse of the opposite sex would just come knowing how to do these things - like our parents did). So now, in our house, we each sit around expecting the other to take the initative and have the skills to fix things like leaky sinks, etc.
I think we might be breaking down these expectations though. Recently we had two "fix it" incidents. One incident involved me running into our sliding glass door and breaking it. It hung in place for about 3 days and then my Dad and husband dismantled it shortly after Christmas. (They said I must be tough because a hammer wasn't easily breaking the glass). The other situation was with our dishwasher - it got so clogged that water couldn't get through to wash the dishes. My husband took the initiative and fixed our dishwasher - after reading about it at the library. Who knew a turkey baster had so many uses! So now we have a fixed dishwasher (with much less soap scum) thanks to my husbands good work.
So I think we will have to figure out for our family who does what in the "fix it" department. Often, to be honest, we call our friends and family to help fix it - they are much more knowledgable than we are. But, we are both open to learning and setting new expectations for our marriage and each other in this area. I don't think either of us relish fixing things - but we are learning to do what it takes. Funny how expectations about little things creep in when you least expect it.
In my house growing up my Dad was Mr. Fix It. He really can fix most everything and does (unless it requires special knowledge). However, in my husbands family his mom fixed everything. Somehow, both my husband and I managed to learn almost nothing about fixing anything while we were growing up. (Probably because we expected our spouse of the opposite sex would just come knowing how to do these things - like our parents did). So now, in our house, we each sit around expecting the other to take the initative and have the skills to fix things like leaky sinks, etc.
I think we might be breaking down these expectations though. Recently we had two "fix it" incidents. One incident involved me running into our sliding glass door and breaking it. It hung in place for about 3 days and then my Dad and husband dismantled it shortly after Christmas. (They said I must be tough because a hammer wasn't easily breaking the glass). The other situation was with our dishwasher - it got so clogged that water couldn't get through to wash the dishes. My husband took the initiative and fixed our dishwasher - after reading about it at the library. Who knew a turkey baster had so many uses! So now we have a fixed dishwasher (with much less soap scum) thanks to my husbands good work.
So I think we will have to figure out for our family who does what in the "fix it" department. Often, to be honest, we call our friends and family to help fix it - they are much more knowledgable than we are. But, we are both open to learning and setting new expectations for our marriage and each other in this area. I don't think either of us relish fixing things - but we are learning to do what it takes. Funny how expectations about little things creep in when you least expect it.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
The leavins'
Well for our new year we have undertaken the task of decluttering our house. When even our single male friends realize that our house is a babyproofing nightmare - something has to be done! Today our little one is successfully rolling onto his side and soon enough he'll figure out how to get all the way over. So we have thrown out a bunch of stuff (although I am having trouble throwing away some of my college essays). Our biggest problem is books - what if we need them again? So we have moved a lot of them into the garage. In some senses we have spread the clutter out more than removed it - but our house is more babyproof.
The other issue is that after you get all of these things out there are small items that you just don't know what to do with. I have a pretty good memory so I remember that almost all of our 13 blankets come from somebody who was thinking of us. I also was given quite a collection of jewlery boxes and similar items from my former students. Has anyone ever seen me wear jewlery?? They are beautiful but what do you do with them? So if you came to visit right now you would probably wonder if we cleaned at all - but really we have - our closets are more organized!
In the end decluttering is frustrating because I wonder - why do we have all this stuff? Yet at the same time I have trouble getting rid of it. It's very conflicting. You would think this would encourage me not to buy new things - but somehow I still manage to find new things that I want - especially books. So our goal for this weekend is to clean up "the leavins" and make our house presentable for the upcoming super bowl party. We'll see how far we get before it all gets stuffed into the closet without sorting it out.
The other issue is that after you get all of these things out there are small items that you just don't know what to do with. I have a pretty good memory so I remember that almost all of our 13 blankets come from somebody who was thinking of us. I also was given quite a collection of jewlery boxes and similar items from my former students. Has anyone ever seen me wear jewlery?? They are beautiful but what do you do with them? So if you came to visit right now you would probably wonder if we cleaned at all - but really we have - our closets are more organized!
In the end decluttering is frustrating because I wonder - why do we have all this stuff? Yet at the same time I have trouble getting rid of it. It's very conflicting. You would think this would encourage me not to buy new things - but somehow I still manage to find new things that I want - especially books. So our goal for this weekend is to clean up "the leavins" and make our house presentable for the upcoming super bowl party. We'll see how far we get before it all gets stuffed into the closet without sorting it out.
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