Jenyfer Matthews

You know you are getting up there in age when many of your stories include phrases like when I was a child or I remember when. Since it seems like a lot of my stories start that way recently so you can draw your own conclusions!

Though I was never a girl scout myself, I have a long history with girl scout cookies. A friend of mine down the street who was a little younger than me was a girl scout and I used to help her sell them. It was kind of a treat for me because my school was always asking us to sell hard things like magazine subscriptions. Girl scout cookies were a breeze – they practically sell themselves!

But it was difficult for even a young child to resist the allure of all those cookies. I used to buy boxes of thin mints with my allowance and stash them in my bedroom. No worries of attracting insects because they never lasted very long! The serving size in the nutritional information really should just say “2″ – I can easily eat an entire tube at one sitting and I’d like to think that everyone else is doing exactly the same thing. I’d like to know what they put in Thin Mints because I can resist all other varieties of Girl Scout cookies but those. The only way for me to resist them is not to buy them at all.

(And incidentally – that Thin Mint Blizzard that Dairy Queen was hyping last summer was a big disappointment. It was Oreos and mint sauce in ice cream. Not a bad Blizzard but NOT Thin Mints)

I’ll be making a quick trip back to the US soon and a friend asked me would I like any girl scout cookies. Does anyone ever say no to girl scout cookies?? Even the cat in the picture is even sitting on a box of my favorite variety! I think my only hope is to avoid eye contact if I see any Girl Scouts or I may have to pay for excess baggage on the return flight!

But you can’t take competition out of the children.

I subbed last week for a librarian at the local American school and instead of working in the library that day, I did what she was scheduled to do that day and worked at their annual sports day. Only they don’t call it “sports day”, they call it “kids day” – and rightfully so because there was nothing sports-like about it.

When I was a child we called it “field day” and there were actual competitive sporting events. We had things like sprints, long jump, relays. There were also slightly borderline events like three-legged race and wheelbarrow race, but all the events had one thing in common: they were all competitive and they all had a declared winner. Someone kept a tally, and at the end of the day the person who won the most events was declared the overall winner and on the next regular school day the first, second, third and fourth winners were recognized with ribbons. It was meant to be a mini-Olympic type day and anyone who cared competed fiercely for those ribbons. I can still remember that I won first place for the girls when I was in sixth grade.

Back to the present and last week’s kids day. It was a day of fun, a day of games, but not a day of competition. At least not officially. Some of the games had ways to measure wins and losses, but they were all team events and so far as I could tell, no one was keeping track of it in any official way. As the officials running the various game stations, we assigned points for how well the children listened to the instructions, how much positive team spirit they displayed, and how many children were wearing hats. If there were a way to swab for sunscreen and what SPF they were wearing, I’m sure that would have been on the sheet as well. But nowhere was there a spot for recording winners and all the activities were team activities. No individual events. It was all for fun.

In spite of all this carefully orchestrated non-competitive fun, I still heard kids cheering for their teammates to hurry up, accusing others of cheating, and declaring themselves the winners of an event. They were clearly enjoying themselves, but they were also very intent on winning and were disappointed when they didn’t do as well as they would have liked.

So why is it that we can still celebrate the victory of our Olympic athletes, but we want to erase any sign of competition when it comes to our children? Where do people think that Olympians come from anyway? Or any successful people in any field for that matter? Different people are good at different things. No one will excel at everything, and yes, when you are young and still figuring all that out, it’s not always a happy or comfortable process. But parents and teachers aren’t doing anyone any favors by trying to shield children from that knowledge. And from what I’ve seen over the years on soccer fields, tennis courts, and schools, parents and teachers would be much better off accepting that competition is a part of human nature and instead of trying to expunge it from the curriculum, teaching children sportsmanship – how to be good winners and good losers.

I’m going on a group tour this weekend to a place called Wissa Wassef Art Center and I’m pretty excited. Pottery and tapestry, two crafts so close to my heart, in one place?? I don’t think my husband truly appreciates how dangerous a trip like this might be to our bank account! I have several embroidered pieces already and the only reason I have as many as I do is because he wasn’t with me when I bought them (sshh!!)

Last weekend a friend of mine invited me along on a trip she had planned to go and see a Lego exhibit she’d heard about at the Egyptian Museum. Lego at the Museum? I joked that what were they going to do, build a pyramid out of Lego? The sphinx?

We first went into the main museum building, thinking that perhaps this would be a temporary display set up in a gallery somewhere. Much to my surprise, the museum was absolutely packed. The last time I visited, it was December 2003 when I was visiting Egypt as a tourist. I don’t know if it was because it was a weekday, it was raining, or because it was Ramadan, but the place was a whole lot calmer the last time I was there. Much more museum like. Yesterday it was more like Walmart two days before Christmas. (nightmare!) I had to pick my seven year old son up so that he could see some of King Tut’s treasure because the crowd was so thick that short people had no chance. When we didn’t see any Lego, we quickly made our way back to the entrance and the information desk.

Turns out that there is a new Children’s Museum around the backside of the main museum. At least I surmise it is new because it was empty – we had the whole place to ourselves. Such a treat after having escaped the crowd! And would you believe the first thing we saw as we walked in was a sphinx made out of Lego??

I didn’t have my camera with me but fortunately my friend was able to take a few shots with her Blackberry. It was truly amazing what they were able to do with Lego.

There was King Tut’s mask, mummies, seated statues, mosaic pictures – even a model of the workers building the pyramids all done in Lego! All these things were mixed in with other actual antiquities, plus there was a Lego play area so the children could construct their own exhibits. The children spent a happy hour there. The only thing that would have made it a happier place for the parents was a couch and a coffee bar

I’m really glad that we found it when we did because I imagine that when word gets out, it’s going to be just as crowded at the main museum is – no place like that will remain undiscovered for long!

I’d like to give you the benefit of the doubt and think that this label is simply a holdover, an antique from an earlier time, but just so you know, there are a huge number of people in the world who would probably find this label offensive:

Given the fact that I’ve never seen a candy bar labeled this way any where else I’ve traveled, I’m betting you already know it’s offensive. I bought the bar in spite of the label – for my daughter. She enjoyed it tremendously…

Tennis was canceled all weekend because after the rain we had on Thursday afternoon / evening the courts were flooded. So were many of the streets – and my living room. My pretty floor to ceiling windows are apparently very badly sealed. I didn’t have any sandbags handy so I used beach towels to mop up the large puddles (this during my first party in my new place!). Makes me very happy that our new building has a laundry room with large washers and dryers in the basement – because what a wet mess!

I’m happy to say that the get-together with my friends went well in spite of the weather and the mess. But I do have to start all over again with my windows and floors now!

The “brilliant” post idea came back to me, and as I suspected it wasn’t that great anyway. My thought was: when you have a monstrously huge zit blemish and you are sure you can see the person you are talking to looking at it so you make an apologetic comment / joke about it and the person you are talking to totally denies noticing anything, are they lying just to be nice or have you just drawn their attention to the one thing that you didn’t want them to notice anyway?

(It might amuse you to know that this idea came back to me last night as I was washing my face. I don’t care what dermatologists say – enough chocolate and I get zits. End of story.)

I like to look at my blog stats, not only to see how many visits I get on a given day but also to see what searches have led people to my blog. One of the most consistently popular searches is for people wanting to convert their digital books from one format to another. That one I can understand. The next most popular lately is for people searching on “birthday ear pulling” which is funny enough but “birthday ear pulling with cake” really amuses me. I had a post of birthday traditions from around the world on one of my own birthdays, but I am happy to say that no one actually pulled my ear. I wouldn’t have permitted that even if they had offered me cake!

It does make me remember that when I was a child, the other children always took the opportunity to give you a “birthday spanking”, the number of smacks corresponding to the number of years. I suppose that’s a tradition that has totally died out. Try that these days and you’ll end up in the headlines for assault.

This adorable creature (chick? duck?) is the product of an after school art club my son attended this term. If you don’t let yourself get distracted by all the bling you can see where he started his stitching, so neatly and carefully, and then became bored and just wanted to finish. The fact that he stitched the whole thing at all is impressive to me – he’s a seven year old boy after all!

It only rains in Cairo a few times a year, mostly in the winter months. I knew that when I washed my (many) windows, I’d likely have to do it again soon because we are coming to the khamseen season (sandstorms) I did not however expect it to rain two days later. I really should have expected it though because really, isn’t it always the way? I remember when I was younger it always seemed like the best way to invite rain was to wash your car. Rain in Cairo is not cleansing in the least. It never really rains hard enough to wash away the accumulated dust – it only drips enough to carry the dust in the air and on the trees to the objects below. The worst place to stand when it rains is under a tree! Get caught in the rain here and you’ll need a shower when you get home. Having said all that, imagine the dirty drop marks on my once clean windows…

It dripped on and off all day long yesterday, and then late in the day it started to look very dark and gloomy. Lightening started to flash and then suddenly it started to rain really loudly. Hail!

The hail was pea-sized, not that impressive in general hail terms, but mighty impressive in Cairo-terms!

Even as I rushed around to turn off all the computers because of the lightening, I grabbed my camera to take a few pictures (my daughter was not happy with me for opening the door at such a time!)

If snow in Texas and hail in Cairo doesn’t point to changes in the climate, I don’t know what does…

Two of the lamps that the housing department provided us have already died, which didn’t exactly break my heart because they were ugly anyway. But since I also hate overhead lighting and sitting in the gloom, I decided I better start looking for some replacements.

Why, oh why, are the best lamps so expensive? And the cutest ones so ineffectual? I saw a variety of lamps today, a few I really liked, but I didn’t have enough money with me to buy the floor lamp I liked best. And even though the whimsical table lamps I saw had a 100w bulbs in them, they were about as effective as a nightlight in the shop so I can only imagine it wouldn’t improve in the vast space that is my living room! Great mood lighting, not so great for quilting though.

I’m beginning to think that lamps are like art, they have to come into your life but are rather elusive when you go out looking for the perfect thing…

I had this great idea for a blog post the other night as I was on my way to bed and then the next morning…POOF! Gone. Only the lingering feeling of what a great idea it was remained. If it was such a great idea, it will probably come back to me, however I have the feeling it was probably one of those night thoughts that seems so good at that moment but pales by the light of day.

I’ve been really making progress getting our new house to feel like home. I’m still finding things in odd places – like the corncob fork I found in my tea canister this morning (that could almost be construed as a boobytrap as sharp as they are!) I’m having some friends over on Thursday night so of course I want everything to look as nice as possible (and if I skip my bedroom on the tour, they ought to be impressed!) Yesterday I got out the really tall community ladder and washed the windows in my living room (that was just for me because they wouldn’t be able to see the dirt and smears at night) and I even made a start on hanging a few pictures. I worked so hard all morning that I could have used a nap by afternoon!

Why was I in such a frenzy? Because I hadn’t realized it until yesterday, but my children have a two day holiday this week so will be underfoot until Sunday. They are old enough to entertain themselves, but not when mom is up a tall ladder! Today I’ll have to confine myself to surfaces lower to the ground. I also have a few errands to run, including buying more nails and looking for some lamps.

If I’m really efficient, I’ll even get to wash and iron some of the fabric I’m planning to use for the commission quilt. As much as I dislike ironing, it would be more fun than cleaning the disaster zone that is my bedroom!*

*I only wish I could blame the move for the fact that my bedroom is a disaster zone. The truth is that it was pretty bad when we moved and the movers simply transferred it as is. I’ve compounded things by moving all the things I don’t want to see anywhere else there, including my husband’s mountain bike, an item I defy any decorator to work around…

I used to set my alarm for 6:30am, but that didn’t really leave me enough time to get up, make school lunches, and herd the children through their morning routine without an awful lot of hurry up, hurry up, hurry up! So now I set my alarm for 6am – which would work wonderfully well if only I would actually get up at 6am. Instead I tend to hit the snooze button three times and get up closer to 6:20am. Getting up even twenty minutes late still leaves me just enough time to get everything done with a minimum of nagging most mornings.

I had planned to make French toast over the weekend, but since I was actually the last one up both mornings (lucky me!) it didn’t happen. Instead I decided that I’d make it for breakfast today. When I told my husband my plan last night, he scoffed. He gets up at 5:30am and says he always knows what time it is when he hears my alarm going off over and over again.

I took it as a personal challenge to get up on time this morning.

I admit I still hit snooze 2x, but even getting up 5 minutes earlier than usual left me time to make four pieces of French toast for the children this morning. Just imagine what I could get done in a day if I got up the first time the alarm went off? If I got up when my husband does, I could practically take over the world!