Musings

I thought that perhaps I should put your minds at rest regarding Dad's retirement. The first morning of his retirement, he got up early, put on the coffee pot, came in and woke me up and suggested we go to 7:30am mass, which we did, and then came home to "ease into the morning" together. It was a wonderful beginning! The conversation that Elizabeth shared did indeed take place, and perhaps even deteriorated before it got better. It was a tough day. Dad had his second MOHS procedure, this time on his temple (PLEASE USE YOUR SUNSCREEN!), we had just spent 6 hours in the doctor's office and left tired and hungry. We were trying to find a restaurant that Dad thought I would like, but I was driving, the area was unfamiliar, we made several wrong turns, and patience was running low on both sides. Sooo, it could only go up from there! We have hardly had a chance to reflect on the "change in status" because we have both been very busy. I will attempt to get him on the blog so that you can hear from him, but since he retired, he has spent a full day at the boys camp sawing and hauling wood, had two more cows artificially inseminated, worked hard around here, planned a hunting trip, gone to dinner at Aunt Anne's and visit with Grandma Margaret, babysat with the Duffy's (I double booked myself and he chose watching Andy and Janie over working at the church rummage sale!), played golf, and much more. The best part is that he is here to enjoy the beautiful fall that is unfolding and we do "ease into the morning" together most mornings!
I have really enjoyed the conversations on the blog these last few days and have my own opinions that I would like to contribute. However, I will simply share a couple of remarks from a couple of letters to the editor of the Wall Street Journal ( I will confess that my favorite parts of the Journal are the editorial page with the accompanying letters and the "Personal" section). These letters were responses to a prior article written by a critical alum from an all female university. Here are the quotes of note: "I am a Tufts female graduate, old enough to proudly identify as a feminist and the parent of a 2008 graduate young enough to believe she doesn't have to identify as a feminist". The other quote is funny! "Let me get this straight: To highlight the shocking new development of women being unkind to other women who do not adhere to their preferred norms, you publish an essay by a young woman in which she is unkind to other women who do not adhere to her preferred norms. Perhaps the Journal should refrain from giving a platform to "mean girls" of any stripe". Any way, I thought the quotes were relevant to some of the remarks of late.
I have shared with you some of the information that Father Matthew VonSmoorenburg has given in his parenting series. He is very well informed about the differences between boys and girls, how their brains develop differently, the different ways in which they learn, the origin of their responses to their environment, the importance of identifying with the same sex parent, etc.etc..One of the books that he has used as a resource is WHY GENDER MATTERS. One of the recommendations is for same sex classrooms/schools...that both genders benefit from this separation and the resulting capacity to optimize teaching methods accordingly. What I am impressed by, however, is the thoughtfullness of all of your reflections/comments. You are wonderful parents!