Nonsense, Parenting

More Gangsta, Less Jello: A Personal Reflection on Values

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This wasn’t one of those lists.

It wasn’t one of those top-ten-annoying-things-you-do-at-work lists, or fashion-faux-pas-after-age-thirty lists. This wasn’t a list to confirm you’re a child of the 80s, or a Virgo, or a Stowaway Tribble on the USS Enterprise. It was from an article someone used at a workshop we attended this past weekend for soon-to-be foreign exchange students.photo (62)

In Values Americans Live By, Robert Kohls of the Washington International Center, spells out thirteen of the core values he says explain why many of us in this country behave the way we do.

Sure it does, I thought. Despite my proclivity for clicking on nonsensical social media quizes, I don’t especially like being told I fit any mold in particular.

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Parenting

Kitchen Kerfluffles and Muffin Mishaps

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muffinsOnce, when Mike and I went on a trip to Mexico, his parents stayed with our kids for the week. That’s when my mother in-law rearranged my kitchen and destroyed my life.

I exaggerate, a smidge. What she actually did was organize a spice cupboard and matched all the Tupperware containers to their lids, which was really nice, but her actions caused a momentary inconvenience a kind of chaotic tension that has reverberated throughout our household ever since. Whenever I can’t find something, I blame her. Even now. I’m sure anyone who ever had a kitchen can sympathize – including my mother in-law, who still laughs at her own ballsy behavior six years post Operation: Kitchen Reshuffle.

I clearly have issues when it comes to the kitchen.

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