Thing #1: Michael Phelps' Breakfast
Michael Phelps eats 12,000 calories a day? I am a little jealous, but I have to say if anyone deserves/needs to eat like a pig, it would be him. I read about a sample menu of his daily food intake: Breakfast: 3 fried egg sandwiches, 2 cups coffee, 5 egg omelette, bowl of grits, 3 pieces of French toast, and 3 chocolate chip pancakes.
I think it's interesting that most of what he eats in a day is greasy crap; like an entire pizza for dinner (that's just one course). I thought such a magnificent athlete would eat really nutritious stuff, like 12 oz of salmon, 16 oz of fillet, 3 bags of steamed spinach, and 4 sweet potatoes. I understand the bulk and the calories, I am just suprised at the sheer, unapologetic junkiness of his diet.
Thing # 2: Ramen Noodles
I am making my kids Ramen noodles for breakfast. Ramen noodles are terrible. I said I would never feed my kids Ramen noodles. There are lots of things I said I would never do with my kids. My standards just keep getting lower as time goes on. I am not sure if motherhood is just wearing me down, or if I am just realizing that most of my standards aren't really important.
I used to eat Ramen noodles with my brother Jason after school on newspapers on the floor in front of the TV, watching Star Trek. This little girl (was it Lena?) who stayed at our house when I was a kid would swallow the noodles, and then pull them, long and stringy and intact, out of her throat. This takes a special kind of talent. I have tried it before, and it is an awful feeling. Shudder.
Thing # 3: Conflicts
My kids screamed and fought all the way down Wickham Rd over two tiny magnets. Not cute fridge magnets, just the plain, black, round ones. My Mom had given them each two to take home a few days ago, and they could only find two in the car yesterday. Jonathan claimed they were his. Anna thought they belonged to her. Much, much screaming ensued. I gripped the steering wheel and tried not to join them in their screaming. I thought about how trivial these magnets are, compared to the houseful of toys, books, and games these kids own. But to them, at this moment, these magnets were important and wholly worth fighting for. Me, having the perspective of an adult, could see that they were not worth the fight. I wanted to ask them, Can't you see this does not matter? I wondered what God, He who has the ultimate in perspective, must think of what I quarrel and bicker about in my life. What must He think when He looks down and sees me having the adult equivalent of a temper tantrum? Hmmmm.
I guess I am really thinking about one thing: relevance. Or is it perspective? It's too early in the morning to tell.
Michael Phelps eating 12,000 calories of fatty, high cholesterol food is really irrelevant to his health or his performance as an athelete. His arteries are most likely spic and span, shiny clean and new. For someone else, a diet like his would probably mean they were either bulemic, or 400 lbs and likely to drop dead sooner rather than later.
Does it really matter that I am feeding my kids Ramen noodles for breakfast? Does it make me a bad mother, in a week when Anna both potty trained and moved into her very own big girl bed? The day after Jonathan put on his swim goggles, and started swimming, long-armed strokes, hand over hand, head underwater, all the way across the pool? I cheered for him in much the same way (kind of like a freak) that Michael Phelps' mom does when he wins.
Does it matter what he ate for breakfast today, the morning that he woke up and made a fabulous Lego concoction, the best he's ever made? The week that he started recognizing the power of the printed word and asking me what every word he sees means? No, it does not matter.
Neither do the little fights (sometimes, brawl is actually a better word for them) Jonathan and Anna have everyday. Their small issues with each other are forgotten each night when they go to bed, and they wake up with something new to fight about each morning. But what is relevant is that they are building a relationship with each other, learning to fight and forgive and find their way in life.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
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2 comments:
Wow...deep for 8:04am in the morning. I was still in bed ignoring my kids. When I came downstairs I found out that Jackie had a Lunchable and fudgsicle for breakfast and I am pretty sure Charlie has just had a fudgsicle. Whatever. I am pround of you for not joining in the screaming like I would have.
I really enjoyed this post a lot! I think you are right to keep the focus on the good things, the progress, the successes!
When I think about me and my brothers ate as kids, I wonder how we ever grew up.
Besides... ramen noodles aren't exactly bad, and you can add veggies to them to make them better.
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