The imperfect things make us perfect.

     My family is far from perfect, nor do we fit many social norms.  However, I dearly love the little things that make us unique and so I thought I'd share some from my home.
     We don't eat at the table.  The kids eat at the bar in our kitchen, and the grown ups eat in the living room.  But we do quite often have family meals together.  About once a week I pick a nationality and have a themed dinner party on the coffee table in the living room.  Japanese night happens most often.  We sit on pillows in the living room and eat Japanese food and watch anime.  I light tea candles and lanterns and at the end everyone gets a fortune cookie.  Fun stuff!  We also don't eat dinner until about 7:30 or 8.  In Italy that's the dinner hour and it just kinda stuck.  While we're on the food topic, I cook every night and try to make sure that my children eat a wide variate of food.  I am a foodie and love a wide variety of foods and want to instill that in my kids.  I even cook foods I don't like for my kids with a fake yum face.   I disdain fish, but my kids think I love it.  As a result, my kids want and ask for foods that most kids won't touch. I buy French bread every time we entain guests so that we can literally "break bread together". Cheesy but I love it. <3
     We kiss on the lips.  No not making out or anything, like a kiss on the cheek but not.  My family is from North Dakota and have done it as long as anyone can remember. <3
     Everyone who enters my home must take their shoes off at the door.  Most places I've lived have required it and at this point the other way feels icky.  I get a few grumbles from this rule, but most people don't mind. <3
     A couple times a week we let the kids sleep in our room.  co-sleeping has been a cultural norm throughout human history.  I like the closeness that comes with it.
     My friends and I are proud nerds.  We have D&D nerds, book nerds, video game nerds, techno nerds, you name it.  Picture three people watching Star Trek on the living room T.V. while also playing with their lap tops.  In the kitchen a bunch of people are playing a deck building game, and someone, or two someones, are playing Black Ops in my room.  I love my people! <3
      We don't censor ourselves much for the kids.  My children understand that there are words that the adults are aloud to use and the children aren't.  I think children can understand things better than they're given credit for and the best way to arm them for the world is to let them live in it.
     Our family drinks out of containers, we take walks in the rain, we shoot guns, and we travel as much as possible.  All of our closest friends get the title of Aunt and Uncle to our kids.  Likewise, the people we're close to parent our children like they would their own.  It take a village to raise a child.  It's nice to know my children will get the same discipline no matter who they're with and that they have so many people who love them. <3 


Well, I think this is where I shall end for the night my loves, I think it's bedtime.  Night all...

Kristi