The Way We View What We Thought We Were Taught

I recently read an article written by someone I once knew relatively well.  She spouted off a handful of things she viewed as cultural expectations both from her family and her religion.  She went on to eloquently expound how, after she had seen a bit more of the world, she realized those things she had been taught were undoubtedly shallow, short-sighted, and in some cases untrue.  She has since gone on to relinquish many of her core beliefs to better fit her new world view.
       What I thought was interesting was when I looked at what she viewed as her culture's expectations for women, I realized that although I grew up in the same culture, I had ABSOLUTELY none of the same impressions of those expectations.  In fact, when I looked further at her complaints, I noticed that growing up she definitely lived by the expectations (to the fullest degree) that she complained about, but those expectations were relatively unfounded from my view.
        My point is, it is a good thing to evaluate yourself, the world around you, and your place in the world.  However, it is important to be careful that you don't assume your limited impressions (and perhaps insecurities) are a cultural expectation that has been imposed upon you.  Sometimes I think we impose those things on ourselves.  And, once freed from their grasp, if we can look back and realize it was in our own head (and not a cultural problem at large), we can move on as a better person without having to clash so strongly with the rest of our beliefs and our culture as a whole.

Pinwheel & Pack

This darling muffin got a backpack she loves... she wears it all over!

Is there anything in it?  Nope!  But, it makes her feel like one of the big kids! :)

Vacation Part 5: At the Park

We call this the "Spinny (not technically a word, I know) Park"... because pretty much everything spins.  These two laughed their heads off on this... which made it nearly impossible to hold on!  (This is the before picture.)

Tulip spinner

Frank has gotten disastrously motion sick here in years past... this year he decided to just stick to the slide!  (See his happy face because he isn't sick?)

The kids thought it would be fun to see how fast they could go with four of them stuck in this contraption... Let's just say--it's a good thing none of them get motion sick!

I want one of the tulip spinners in my backyard!

Vacation Part 4: Playing at the River

After our GORGEOUS hike the first day, we decided we wanted to go back and play by the river for a morning activity.  We packed a lunch, bought a few toys at the dollar store (trucks, army guys, a miniature tea set, and a couple of ponies), and set up camp.

The girls had a very civilized tea party--consisting of mud pies and river water.  (No, they didn't really drink it... but they DID give it to the ponies!)

Boys will be boys!

Sam set up the army guys on one side of the river... and everyone else chucked rocks from the other side to knock them down (usually after Sam had moved...).  (Perhaps a little less civilized than the aforementioned tea party... even if the tea party DID involve mud pies!)  We all had a GREAT time!

Vacation Part Three: The Dunes

Let's go fly a kite!  It was a windy, slightly cool day... this was the perfect activity!

Being the brilliant, innovative genius that he is, my husband likes to take broken remote-control cars/trucks and add a rope to them for the kids to pull around-- they still make that revving noise boys love so much, and it allows them to expend a world of energy!  (Thrift stores are a great place to pick these up for only a few dollars.  We used a jump rope from the dollar store for the rope/handle.)

Picnic in the sand

Climbing the dunes is harder than it looks!

These two love to play together!!!  If you notice, I didn't really get any great shots of the older two boys--they were busy running as far and as fast as possible with those trucks!  (They also took a bunch of slow-motion videos of the trucks crashing... pretty cool!)

Cousins

Nothing is better than a s'more straight out of the fire...

...except perhaps one in each hand!

These ladies were collecting petals to use for fairy beds!  They were oh-so-soft!

Boys.  You can just SEE the joy on their faces.  Enough said.

This beautiful (though tired) girl attracts small children like you wouldn't believe!  Every one of my babies has always loved her... even when she was still a tiny one herself!  She'll be a GREAT babysitter!  (Though, admittedly, she might like the wee ones to occasionally let her be.)

Easter

Easter Finery

We had a massive Easter brunch and egg hunt on Saturday!  I'm not posting pictures from that (since it involves other people), but here were some of the yummy treats we made!

Flower Cookies

"Carrot" Strawberries

During the egg hunt

After the party we were all really tired... but I managed to rally and set up everything to dye eggs that evening!  It was fun!

These two had to scour the forest to make sure no eggs were missed!

These were my beautiful eggs.  I would have taken pics of the kids' eggs, but they devoured them before I got the chance!

Vacation Part 2: Swimming

My munchkins LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to swim!  Here are some of our best shots:

Vacation Part 1

 We recently took a vacation over Spring Break... actually, Mommy misread the calendar... so technically we missed school!  Ha!  The munchkins thought is was the best mistake ever!  Here we are hiking a truly GORGEOUS hike!  We just missed the storm you see in the background!