I loved The Swiss Family Robinson as a kid. It was one of my favorite stories, along with Robinson Crusoe and the Little House books. I remember going to Disney World long before I read the book and wondering what the treehouse was all about, but I understood once I was old enough for the book. After reading this abridged edition, I realize that the cornucopia of flora and fauna on the island is utterly outlandish, but as a kid it seemed perfectly normal for an exotic island to have lions, tigers, elephants and ostriches. The story is still a blast, and M enjoyed it quite a bit too since it was a special ‘Daddy & M’ book. Along the way, I got a nice flashback to some of my dreams and fantasies as a kid and realize that some things don’t change but are slowly forgotten.
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It’s been a quiet few days for us, but I’ve been busy figuring out how Wordpress’ theming (design) works. We’re happy that the site design reflects us more, though I will say that the theme we had been using was quite a nice and well-conceived design. Our theme is still a work in progress - I *think* everything works properly, but it’s quite possible that I haven’t clicked into every possible area. The main things that still need work are the sidebar and footer areas. In any case, I hope y’all like it. I’m considering making a generic version available for download.
A little known fact[Something that is true.] about me: I once auditioned for Opryland[Note to self: sing something more fun than ‘The Long Black Veil’ next time. And if you’re going to try to sell yourself as a Johnny Cash impersonator, try dressing in black.].
After several months of working with Joomla, we decided to switch to Wordpress due to ease of use and the fact that it is oriented towards blogging. Joomla’s great for other purposes, but Wordpress made a great impression during a test drive last week. We probably won’t have our old design back until I get a handle on theming, but I’ll try to find a theme today where I can replace the header image with our nice grass picture.
Also, apologies to any blogrings and webrings we are members of as I’m still figuring out how to add the necessary code to Wordpress.
We’ve been parents for almost 4 years, or maybe longer since we started thinking and making decisions based on what’s best for our children after getting pregnant. It’s been a hectic, joyous, frazzled, rewarding ride so far. Our outlook on almost everything has changed - parenting can do that. It’s like jumping into ice-cold water. You can try to prepare yourself by sticking a toe in (changing a diaper), splashing ice water on your face (babysitting a hyper kid solo for a few hours) or perhaps immersing a whole arm (babysitting overnight). Absolutely nothing can prepare you for actual, 24-7 parenting. It’s a shock to the system.
Of course, it’s not a bad thing but a major change. We researched and learned and do our utmost to make decisions that are in the best interest of our children. We weren’t intending on being natural birthing homeschooling cosleeping attachment parents, but that’s what happened after we started researcing & reading & learning.
Which finally brings me to Tiny Grass. We’d wanted to blog for awhile, especially since the internet has been so helpful in helping us find information and meet up with other like-minded parents. While we were mulling the idea over I started reading poems, looking for inspiration to come up with a domain name that really captured what we wanted the site to be about. I went through some of the greats - Frost, Whitman, Tennyson, Shelley, as well as quite a few masters of haiku until giving Tagore a shot.
I’d forgotten about good ol’ Rabrindranath (which was not the name of the Indian kid in ‘Head of the Class’ ;-)). I’m Indian - he’s Indian. He’s even from the same part of India as (most of) my family, West Bengal. And he’s a fine, fine writer. I thought it was kinda neat that he’d won a Nobel Prize for literature about 100 years ago. And I found quite a few wonderful poems, but nothing really hit me until I found ‘Tiny Grass.’
Hmmm - ‘Your steps are small but you possess the earth under your tread.‘ Like nature, like children. Like the natural world that modern life tries to destroy and ignore in its quest for ‘progress.’ Or like children, who are the future and who we must try to guide and teach as well a possible. Yes - ‘Tiny Grass’ was definitely it.
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