Dora's Purple Backpack

Taken directly from Wikipedia:

  The backpack is a magic satchel, which has been known to produce large items, including multiple ladders, two complete space suits (one each for Dora and Boots) and other items that simply could not fit inside it. Backpack seems to have a lot of extra space within her fabric to be held in such a small area. It was given to Dora as a present by her mother and father. To make the Backpack open up, Dora asks the viewers at home to say "Backpack". The Backpack then sings a little introduction and asks the viewers at home to choose what Dora needs from among the Backpack's contents. Afterwards, the remaining contents go back into Backpack, who says, "Yum yum yum yum yum, ¡delicioso!" ("Delicious!")

 So I am one of those mothers that puts the tv on for her children so that I can have some quiet time…which turns out to be a lot in our lives.  I am sure that you all have an opinion on that, but I am not going to discuss it in this blog…may be another day.  Anyway, my kids wander in and out of watching whatever is on Nick Jr while they are up and about.  Most of the time I ignore whatever it is that is on, other than to notice what they like and what I like.  For example, Ryan loves Bubble Guppies, and Casey loves Dora and Diego…I do not!  I loathe Dino Dan and the Fresh Beat Band.  I happily ignore Dora and Diego because I am not fond of them, and I could never really put my finger on why until now.  I find Dora the Explorer to be quite distressing…I want to rip the map into a million pieces and burn it every time it sings.  And what has become a recent realization to me is that Dora’s backpack EATS EVERYTHING!!

Is anyone else really disturbed by this?  I know that you all probably knew this before, may be you pay more attention to what are on these kids’ shows.  I was actually watching it for the first time a couple of weeks ago; again I happily ignore most of the shows.  I almost changed the channel because I was so distressed about the fact that her backpack had just eaten a pair of rubber boots and a rubber duck and said “yum yum yum yum yum, delicioso”.  I have rubber ducks in my house, as a matter of fact I consider them an absolute necessity for any bathtub to have at least one, and this thing is eating one and saying yummy!  I try very hard to teach my kids what can and what cannot go into their mouths…for example:  Fruit snacks are yummy, put them in your mouth and eat them.  Shoes are cock-a-ninie, don’t put that in your mouth.  

 What keeps this thing from eating Dora and her buddy the purple monkey which is ironically names “Boots”?  And why not sick the backpack on Swiper when he is being a pain, won’t it just eat Swiper and then regurgitate him back up at a more convenient time?  Hhhhmmmmm…may be the backpack only eats in-animate objects, yet still highly distressing in my book!   

I don’t mean to be a complainer here, but what are we teaching our children?  That backpacks will eat things that we don’t want or need.  That we can eat rubber boots.  What doesn’t that backpack eat?  I wonder how many children become afraid of backpacks, thinking that if they get a purple one with eyes then it will eat them?!  I am very concerned about this!  The other thing I wonder is, all that crap comes out of her back pack to begin with…if it eats it when it is done, then when it spits it out to begin with is it throwing up?  I wonder how many kids have regurgitating backpacks, because I have pulled some really odd things out of my Casey’s backpack when she comes home from school.  I have learned that you have to check those things when they get home from school because if you don’t then you end up with rancid smelling backpacks hanging by the front door when they are on vacation.  It took me like 3 days to figure out what that smell was!  They should so not let them put food in there!

 Anyway, back to Dora’s backpack…I am left having to decide about the watching of this show in my home…I’m the mom, I have to make these life altering decisions, right?!  After much prayer, I decided that I am capable of combatting Dora and her hungry backpack.  If the question arises then I will just say that Dora has to get a new backpack for every show because the old one always dies because the dr wasn’t able to remove the rubber boots before they made it to the intestinal tract, which is why we shouldn’t eat rubber boots.  As for why Dora chooses a backpack with friendly eyes and a happy smile that talks to her after regurgitating various items and then eats the ones she doesn’t want.  Well I suppose I will approach that from the aspect that you can never really tell who is a cannibal and who isn’t just by looking at them.  I will make a point of telling my children that if their backpack starts munching on their rubber boots then they should abandon the backpack and I will buy them a new one and have Daddy bless it not to eat their rubber boots.

So here’s to you, small cannibalistic purple backpack with friendly eyes!  Thank you for showing me what I have to prepare to combat in this fierce and terrifying world that we live in.  Here’s to you and thank you for giving me a way of explaining to my children that even bad guys can wear lavender and have friendly eyes and smile a lot while they offer you things.

The North Wind and The Sun

The North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger, when a traveler came along wrapped in a warm cloak.

They agreed that the one who first succeeded in making the traveler take his cloak off should be considered stronger than the other.

Then the North Wind blew as hard as he could, but the more he blew the more closely did the traveler fold his cloak around him;

and at last the North Wind gave up the attempt. Then the Sun shined out warmly, and immediately the traveler took off his cloak.

And so the North Wind was obliged to confess that the Sun was the stronger of the two.

 I have been spending the last few weeks or so pondering this fable, mainly because I believe that it applies to our lives for the last 3 weeks or so.  We have been living in what seems like a constant barrage of wind and hail and little storms.  We have had bugs, I have had 12 x-rays for a variety of reasons, and we have had vomiting.  The laundry has been non stop for 3 weeks: first there was lice…then there was lice again, and then there was vomiting…oh, then more lice and more sickness.  My mother has done countless loads of laundry, and I did 5 loads one day myself in between the cleaning of the vomit and lice.  Somewhere in the middle of that I fell on the stairs and twisted my foot and spent a week on crutches, and I am still on the pain medication. 

It seems as though every day I would get up and there would be something new happen that would make it seem as though the wind was starting to blow in our lives.  The north wind is trying to strip us of our protection, we are going through an ongoing storm and I am sure that Satan is attempting to pick us out of the gospel.  But I am positive that he has not yet considered that we will only wrap the gospel closer and tighter around ourselves as protection from the storm.  Which is exactly what I am doing, and for me it is a knee jerk reaction.  It is what I have always done, wrapped myself tighter in the gospel, put my hood up, and ride out the winds of adversity. 

I can’t say that this is any different than any other previous time in my life where the north wind has started to blow, as a matter of fact this storm is the same as all the others have been.  It always starts small, with different things happening a week or so apart.  Then it seems to come in waves of silly things that get bigger only because there is more and more of them closer and closer together.  One treatment for lice soon turns into 3, with the knowledge that they are coming home from school.  Xrays for a back problem soon turns into xrays for a possible broken foot, leading from Norco to Percocet.  It seemed to culminate in me standing and looking at myself in the mirror because I had just dyed my hair red.  The winds stressed me out and in my state of mind with the pain meds in my system, instead of stripping off my coat of the gospel, I dyed my hair.  I am fairly convinced that every time this happens it just makes Satan all the more persistent the next time.  I am pretty sure he curses me every time my feet hit the floor in the morning, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that he will never give up on trying to strip me of my gospel protection.

When the day ends I take my pills and relax while hanging onto the priesthood sleeping next to me, I go to bed knowing that I will continue the fight the next day no matter what stupid things happen to cause me stress.  What all these winds in my life have done is cause me to appreciate the sunny days all the more, I love the days that the sun comes out and I can take off my protection and bathe in the rays of the sun and the love of God.  Here’s to you North Wind, for without you I would never love the sun so much, I would not know how to wrap the gospel as a coat around me as a protection from you.