6.02.2016

Guilty Pleasures - or letting the twaddle in

Amazon has created a monster in me. Because, as I said earlier, I like good tools and nice things. I'm a researcher and overthinker. Sometimes this is a good thing, like my obsession with researching homeschool choices 4 years ago led me to Ambleside Online and the community there and I never looked back.

But other times, I start researching the perfect replacement for our toaster oven and whether we should get a toaster or toaster oven and how big and ....hours later I give up in frustration. Then the next day Craig picks up a toaster the next day at the dollar store down the road because he wanted toast again. It's been a year now and that toaster still works just fine! There has to be a balance and I, uhm, sometimes lose sight of that with all the options and opinions available to me.

The toaster story is a fun one and obviously, quality toast isn't as important as a quality education. But my point is, I like to have a pretty twaddle free life. And twaddle as a term is normally applied to books but I think it works just as well when it comes to music and art and movies and even toys. And I like to talk about the high quality stuff we read/watch/listen/play around our home and share it with y'all and get recommendations from you too. But sometimes, shh, don't tell, we do let some twaddle in our house. 

And if you promise to keep it between us, I'll share some of them with you:

  • Taylor Swift - I saw her perform at the Grand Ole Opry's original theater about a month before I got married when my family took one last trip as a group of 5 before we had to let Craig in :-) I just can't help having a soft spot for her so when Craig takes the big kids for errands and its just the baby and I playing or, more likely, catching up on chores together, I often turn on youtube, find some taylor swift songs and we sing and dance (and sweep/vacuum/mop). Dancing and moping with a 17lb baby on your back is a good workout. But mostly it's just fun. When the kids that are old enough to understand lyrics are around, I tend to listen to better quality stuff, although sometimes a bit of k-pop sneaks in there too. 


  • Princess EVERYWHERE!- Oh my, the princesses are taking over my life. We've long been fans of princesses but Lucy did start out with generic or classic version of them before eventually succumbing to the Disney versions. I don't mind this too much. Primarily, I wanted her to hear the real versions of the stories. And I wanted to avoid expensive cheap plastic crap or twaddley books. Which we still have manged to do. The movies are fine and the songs are fun.  Legos and Hanna Andersson Jammies (especially Pjs. I dislike character clothes but pajamas bother me a lot less, maybe that's hypocritical but whatever) are quality products whether they have a princess on them or not so that's all good. We have several dress-up outfits from the little adventures brand (found here - not an affiliate link) and they are so much nicer than the official disney versions you'll find out there. So I do think you can have your princess themed cake and eat it to. But we recently checked out a Disney princess cd from the library and the first song on it was If You Can Dream .  It's so bad. So bad. I feel my brain cells seeping out in an effort to get away from the signals my ears are sending. But guess who loooovvvved it.  Lucy would just sit in the back of the car, belting out "If you can dream, the wish we're making, on a STAR is coming TRUE!" I made it through those two weeks but have wised up and now we only check out Disney song cds that don't have any non-movie additions. 
  • Youtube Make-up tutorials - Craig was out of town last week and I had plans to catch up on my classics and sleep. But instead I was, as I normally am when he's gone at night, restless. So what did I do when I knew I had to be in charge of three small people from 6am to 8pm with no breaks because getting naps to coincide lately has been a challenge? Why, I stayed up till almost midnight watching make-up tutorials! Yay for bad decisions! Actually, it wasn't really a bad decision. I can never sleep well when Craig is gone and I needed some twaddle to kill time and take my mind off the fact that I wasn't sleeping so I could finally fall asleep. It was a twaddley decision because I'm not sure you can get more twaddley than watching someone drink a smoothie, cuddle with their dog and talk about their "no make-up make-up look" that uses more products than my fancy make-up look. But on the plus side, I think I've finally figured out how eye shadow works. It only took me 17 years. 

So, there are just a few ways that twaddle sneaks into my life. And that's just it. It sneaks in. I think that's actually the best reason to be proactive about looking for the really good stuff - the good books and music and classic toys. Because that other stuff will find a way in at times. And that's okay too.

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