What is white on the outside and red, white, black and brown on the inside?

That, my dears, would be me.

It is based on a Native American comment to other Native Americans who "try" to be white... they are called apples because they are red on the outside but white on the inside.

But the point of this post is not to give a mediocre dialog on my ethnicity... as in I tell you why I hate those questions on things like surveys and forms... I do, I hesitate each and every single time I am asked "What is your Racial/Ethnic background?"

Honestly, I do not know how to answer this. But we can save that for another time... except that I will be addressing the red in me today.

It is a family tale on both my maternal and paternal side that we have Native American blood, not tribally recognized, but acknowledged by ourselves... and honored and respected. We have tried to see about being added to the roles, but that brings in those sad tales of ancestors being ashamed of their ties and not enrolling... little knowing that in doing so their descendants would be sad by that... (more proof in argument for my mother's rule of ten thousand years) because their desire to recognize that part of their heritage is left in a deadlock, in which we are only able to say My great grandmother was Native and we cannot say "I am part Native American" because our government and the tribal government says we aren't.

I am sure it must be that I am an anthropologist that causes this desire to be able to recognize ALL my ancestors... I do, and largely based on my mothers rule of ten thousand years (Mom, write a post on this please) which in part says that our very being here on earth is the direct result on all our Ancestors having babies and making sure they grew up and were able to raise babies that grew up and had more babies... and on... and on. Not all that profound, perhaps a simple tale of sex through the ages... but think about this... they brought those babies up through wars, through famine, drought, pain, misery... life is just not all that easy and all of our ancestors had to survive this... all of them, or we would not be here. I have to honor that.

But, I digress.

Yesterday, a Choctaw friend of mine did a blessing on a building I am affiliated with. I was allowed to participate and actually help. It was a pleasant experience, profound too... when we went outside we were able to see a bright red sun (we have some wild fires in the area), which gives that extra special touch to the whole thing...we all had an emotional moment. I wish I felt like I could write more about the "ceremonial", but I just don't have it in me to do it justice... other than to say it was nice, and I felt a tie to my Native American ancestors. I mentioned this as a part of my prayer, something along the lines of "Thank you for allowing Bear (my friend) to see that in me which so many others had denied me the ability to acknowledge" and Bear started crying. That simple gesture, meant so much to me... and in turn I hope to my Cherokee and Delaware ancestors as well.

blair has sent you a card from someecards.com!

blair has sent you a card from someecards.com!

View card: http://www.someecards.com/viewcard/95601e858dacccbfcd78599d89ccdef7

My thoughts can't be summed up in 140 characters

I got this thing below in an email from my mother.

Squink has hit the freaking ugly three's (terrible is not sufficient, horrible is not sufficient; when he gets is a "mood" he practically becomes something so awful that I have termed it Squink who should not be named, (awful; plain and sadly not so simple).

I would do his first year in a hearbeat, he was so easy going, he was happy, he just loved being, and his being was always happy. I don't remember him being seriously colicky or sick... sure, he had a few times where he was not all that pleasant, but NOTHING like his moods now.

So, I suppose I can take solace that as a predictor his behavior in year 0-1 he is destined to become a great kid... my only worry now is my role... I am not so confident that he was "intellectually stimulated" enough. He was not fond of being read to, but was quite happy being quiet while I read myself (I had read somewhere that kids reading was not as good a predictor for reading skills as was the presence of adult readers in the household... which I interpreted as modeling behavior if you read, the kids would know it was a good thing to do)... does that all make sense?

Anyway, my plan was not to freak out about this news piece... but was mainly to complain that this kind of information only serves to make mothers question themselves, which is frankly counterproductive in the whole scheme of child rearing... I am far better off spending my time with the Squink than I am dwelling on this.

Mothers' influence is decisive in tots' first year
Study says parenting style and baby's temperament predict challenging
behavior in later childhood The way mothers interact with their babies in the first year of life is strongly related to how children behave later on. Both a mother's
parenting style and an infant's temperament reliably predict challenging behavior in later childhood, according to Benjamin Lahey and his team from the University of Chicago in the US. Their findings (1) have just been published online in Springer's Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology.

The researchers looked at whether an infant's temperament and his mother's parenting skills during the first year of life might predict behavioral problems, in just over 1,800 children aged 4-13 years. Measures of infant temperament included activity levels, how fearful, predictable and fussy the babies were, as well as whether they had a generally happy disposition. The researchers looked at how much mothers
stimulated their baby intellectually, how responsive they were to the child's demands, and the use of spanking or physical restraint. Child conduct problems in later childhood included cheating, telling lies, trouble getting on with teachers, being disobedient at home and/or at school, bullying and showing no remorse after misbehaving.

The results indicate that both maternal ratings of their infants' temperament and parenting styles during the first year are surprisingly good predictors of maternal ratings of child conduct problems through age 13 years. Less fussy, more predictable infants, as well as those who were more intellectually stimulated by their mothers in their first year of life, were at low risk of later childhood conduct problems. Another
observation the researchers made was that early spanking predicted challenging behavior in Non-Hispanic European American families, but not in Hispanic families.

According to the authors, these findings support the hypothesis that "interventions focusing on parenting during the first year of life would be beneficial in preventing future child conduct problems=85Greater emphasis should be placed on increasing maternal cognitive stimulation of infants in such early intervention programs, taking child temperament into consideration."

Source: Springer
http://www.physorg.com/news133438337.html

Day 5 - the day trip to Schlaining

We did not get to bed at a decent hour since we returned to the village after the festivities and then managed to sleep late enough that we missed saying our good-byes to Schatz's brother, fiance and nephew. Perhaps, this was the closest I came to getting a good nights sleep.

Oma and Opa suggested, in the late morning once we were up, that we go on a day-trip to the nearby Schlaining castle... hungry for some "sight seeing" we readily agreed, packed up the Rover and headed off. Of course, nothing we had looked at indicated that the castle would be closed... which it was. Thankfully, castles are often equally as interesting on their outsides. Though there is a peace museum inside, so maybe a visit there next trip is called for.

I have to say that where I live is based on the Roman street system, that is, we are on a grid, and you can usually get some idea about where you are going, or coming from. Not the case where we were, though we managed to only get a little turned around.

Anyway, the three of us headed out and managed to actually find the castle without a problem: we parked and looked down into the moat (with a sad lack of dandelions).

Here is the bridge over the moat into the castle.

One thing I noticed is that the castle had two "guardians", much like the church where Squink was baptized.

.

By this time Schatz was taking pictures of the castle and I was looking for a way to explore with the Squink. Squink and I found a trail and I was on the hunt to find a picture that resembled the pictures of me as a little girl in the castles in Spain. The trail was a fairly easy switchback down into the moat. The whole thing looked like it had some purpose, though I have no idea what that may have been.

Here are Squink and I on the trail...

Here is Squink showing his tendency towards adventure, those steps were lousy... they scared me (as those things would scare a mom).

At the bottom were these series of "bridges" that Squink insisted on crossing, repeatedly.

Here I am explaining pond life to Squink.

Here is a shot of the castle that Schatz took, I like it because it has an odd perspective and looks like it could be a mini castle growiing among some weeds.

Here is a picture like the ones I have of me when I was younger, framed by a doorway or window... sadly I could not get him to look at me for anything.. but I like the picture anyway.

On our way home we stopped at a McDonald because Squink had seen the playground and kept asking to go to see it. Inside we found that Austrians are so serious about their coffee that they have a McCafe inside. It offers up a nice selection of pastries and freshly made coffee (as in to order)... and which are served on real plates, with real flatware... while the McDonalds does it the usual way. I should add that I had the royal (which was a choice I sadly made which was influenced by Pulp Fiction and Schatz had a shrimp burger (which a nephew later told us was heavily laced with antibiotics).

another book review

A Voice for the Dead: A Forensic Investigator's Pursuit of the Truth in the Grave by James Starrs

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
I am quite sure that should I ever have the chance to hear the author speak that one of the following would occur;

1) He would be as long winded as his writing style, or

2) He might prove to be more interesting that he comes across in his writings.



The stories were fascinating, but a bit long winded in parts... often clothed in what I perceived to be some sort of self aggrandizement. I kept being reminded of the Hemingway followers who go to the running of the bulls, grow a beard and end up trying to look like Ol' Papa H himself.



I think the best thing I can say is that I did not hate the book... for a topic I find fascinating... I only liked it enough.


View all my reviews.