Goodreads Review: The Little Fire Engine by Lois Lenski

The Little Fire Engine by Lois Lenski
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I hated this book so much I had to write a review about it.

Fireman Small and the other firefighters are called to save a burning house. They go there in a fire truck that says the same thing as the Winkies in the Wizard of Oz (ooo-weee-oooo). I could not figure out how to make that sound like a siren.

They get to the house and it is obviously a serious situation because smoke is coming out of the windows and doors. So Fireman Small sends his firefighters straight in with nothing but various sharp blades to find the fire.

Meanwhile, Fireman Small and another firefighter are preparing the pump and hose. The family is removing furniture from their house that has copious amounts of smoke coming out of it.

Then the plot thickens. One of the daughters is trapped on the second floor with her kitty and there are flames behind her. Apparently the family was so busy saving their furniture that they didn't bother to make sure the kids were all safely out of the house. But it's okay, because Fireman Small saves the girl and the kitty using the ladder.

By this point the fire has reached the attic, according to the report of the firefighters who went inside the house to explore, so Fireman Small climbs the ladder to the roof, chops a hole in it, and sprays water through the hole, extinguishing the fire. (This is not why firemen chop holes in roofs, by the way.)

Amazingly, although the house was up in flames, it was saved by Fireman Small's heroic efforts. He tells the family that their house is saved and they can go ahead and move all of their furniture back into their soggy, smoke-damaged home that has a hole in the roof, and the firemen drive back to the firehouse. What a happy ending.

You may have guessed that this is probably not a great book to use if you want to teach fire safety.

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I have been thinking about the goals I made in January. Like I said then, I am not a New Years Resolutions kind of person, but this year I felt like I should have some goals. Here's how I've done so far:

• Read Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling: Done. I also read Ethnic America and have started reading The Jefferson lies--both are non-fiction books.
• Sew a little bit every week: I have not been sewing every week, but I have done a lot more sewing this year. I have made a dress for Heidi, four skirts for myself, and a few hair clips.
• Read twelve books for fun (one per month): According to Goodreads, I have already read 20 books this year. I have been doing a much better job this year of using my free time for the things that are important and that I truly enjoy, instead of wasting it away on shallow things on the internet.
• Read most of each month's Ensign: I have read most of the Ensigns this year.

I would say I've done a pretty good job of accomplishing my goals so far this year. Maybe I should do this more often.

on respect

I follow a few cloth diaper pages on Facebook because I enjoy learning about new kinds of cloth diapers (even though I never buy them because our prefolds and covers work so well and are so cheap), and they also post giveaways sometimes. (I have won two cloth diapers by entering these giveaways.) Recently I have hidden a lot of the pages because I am tired of all the gay marriage/attachment parenting/environmentalism posts with all of the associated political comments, but there are a couple that I have continued to follow. Today I saw this post on Cloth Diaper Geek's Facebook page:

"I saw a teacher or whomever, in the car loop at my kids school look right at me and my pink hair, laugh then turn to another teacher who then turned to look right at me while the other was talking to her. I let it get to me for a minute. Then I proceeded to feel sorry for her. But it still gets to me a bit. I'm not the most self confident person on the planet but I try, for my kids sake and my own."

I have been thinking a lot about what she said. As a 12-year-old growing up in Kimberly, Idaho, I thought dying your hair pink or green or blue or piercing your nose was pretty rebellious. The dress and grooming standards in For the Strength of Youth were very important to me. I still initially feel a little shocked when I see people with huge tattoos or strange-colored hair or 2-inch holes in their ears, even though such styles are a bit more common here. But I think it's interesting that it never occurred to me that a person with pink hair would feel self-conscious about it. I had always supposed that a person who is brave enough to prefer a style like that would be the sort of person who doesn't care what people think. But from this post and also reading Cloth Diaper Geek's replies to other comments below the post, I realized that there are people who like their hair blue or pink or whatever, but still feel very self-conscious about it. Does that make sense?

I honestly don't approve of a lot of these extreme styles. Maybe part of it is my conservative background, but I really value a clean and professional look. But I also have been thinking today about how important it is to remember that people who like to look "different" still have worth and feelings. I would hate for a woman with pink hair to go home and cry because she saw me look at her funny or make some comment to somebody about her appearance. And they don't necessarily fit into the stereotypes you would expect, either. Cloth Diaper Geek is a stay-at-home mom who cares deeply for her children. She has a lot of great things to say and think about and she is always very respectful and kind of others' opinions. I am reminded of a story my aunt told me once about a biker covered in tattoos from head to toe who helped her when her car was broken down. She said he was one of the most caring people she had ever met and he would have given her the shirt off his back.

I guess what I'm saying is, yes, there are scary people out there. We need to be aware of that and be careful. And I acknowledge that our appearance and grooming can say a lot about us. But there are also people who might look "scary" or "extreme" or just different (according to our preconceived notions) who are still sensitive, human creatures who deserve respect and decency. Let's all try a little harder to see them as children of God with feelings and be aware of how we react to them and treat them.

how a sewing machine works

Check out this video that shows how a sewing machine works. I have wondered about this for most of my life. I could not figure out how the needle thread and the bobbin thread got twisted around each other before the needle came back up. Now it makes sense. The book The New Way Things Work calls the sewing machine a mechanical wonder.

http://youtu.be/ML8CMNzW6Tg

common conversations

It's amazing how often I get the same responses from people when they find out what Ryan and I are studying. Here are some typical conversations:

Friend: So what's your husband studying again?
Me: Astronomy. (Technically it's astrophysics, but Ryan has found that when people hear the word "physics" their eyes glaze over and suddenly want to get away.) He's getting a PhD.
Friend: Oh, wow. And you're in school too, right? What are you studying?
Me: Yeah, I'm going part-time. I'm getting my bachelor's degree in Geology.
At this point there can be a couple of different responses:
Response 1: Oh, wow, so you guys must have a lot to talk about/you must have a lot of really interesting conversations.
Response 2: Oh, wow, so you both must be really . . . um . . . yeah, like really, well . . . yeah.
Response 3: Wow, that's great. I'm so glad that there are people that enjoy those kind of things, because I know I could just never be interested in those things because I just don't really like them. But that's so great that you guys can do that stuff.

We find all three responses to be kind of interesting. If it's the first response . . . Um, yes, we do enjoy talking about geology and astronomy together, but guess what, we are both interested in many different topics and we talk about those too--politics, church, parenting, movies, and history, just to name a few. Is that normal, or do most people only talk about what they studied in college? If it's the second response . . . How were you planning to finish that sentence? Nerdy? Smart? Sciencey? Cool? Fond of licking rocks? If it's the third response . . . um, thanks, I think. I'm assuming you're not trying to imply that you don't want to hear me talk about what I do.

When people find out that Ryan does physics, they also sometimes say, "Wow, physics, huh? I bet you do a lot of story problems, don't you?" Not really.

I'm not offended by these comments (I figure they are meant to be friendly and therefore I take them that way), but I think it's really interesting how often Ryan and I have these exact conversations with people. I suspect that there are a lot of people who are intimidated by science and assume that whatever we say will be way over their heads because we're science people. We really can talk about a lot of different things, not just science.

But it is kind of fun to say that I'm studying Strontium isotopes using mass spectrometry. By the way, there's a lot more to geology than collecting rocks. We actually kind of like the rocks because they have a story behind them.

Eno River State Park

Last week we enjoyed going to Eno River State Park.

There was a fair amount of exposed bedrock, which of course made me excited. I thought it was cool because there was a lot of tilted bedding and it seemed to largely have the same strike and dip. The rocks in the picture below were a good example, although you might not be able to see it very well.

Some pictures and stories

Heidi had already eaten first breakfast, second breakfast, and a snack, so when she asked for one of Mom's biscuits the answer was no. She was DEVASTATED.

After family home evening one night we tried to teach Kevin how to play Uno. Only problem was that he didn't want to give up his cards. We tried to show him how to choose the right colors and put them on the pile, and he got quite upset at us and told us to stop taking his cards. Heidi did a little better. We took to using all of our Skip cards and Draw Two/Draw Four cards on Kevin so that he could draw more cards, although he was drawing cards whenever he felt like it anyway. I kept suggesting Duck, Duck, Goose instead, which just made the kids upset because they wanted to play a GAME. So after I won Uno (yes, I actually beat Ryan in a game for once) Ryan and I started playing Duck, Duck, Goose anyway, and of course once they saw us doing it the kids thought it was the best thing ever and didn't want to stop.

Pullen Park

Ryan had one last day before his schedule got busier with orientation and pre-semester things, so he suggested that we go to Pullen Park so we could do something together as a family. Pullen Park has several playgrounds, a train, boats for little kids, a merry-go-round, and paddle boats on a little lake. The train, little boats, and merry-go-round are only $1 per person. We've wanted to go for a while, so it was fun, even if it was a pretty hot day.

Riding the train

Kevin and Heidi driving the boats

Carousel (Heidi made Ryan take her off as soon as she realized her horse was going up and down really fast)

We took a break to go find a picnic table and have a snack.

RT: Heidi, what'd you think of the horse?

H: The horse.

RT: Did you ride the horse?

H: Uh-huh. Yeah.

RT: Did you ride a train?

H: Uh-huh.

RT: What'd you think of the train?

H: Sorry. Stopped. Stopped.

We loved the train so much that we decided to have another train ride.

(No, really, Heidi did like the train.)

Sometimes I am a good mom.

After reading a book this evening about a wolf who makes pancakes, Kevin wanted to make pancakes for dinner. We have some buttermilk that we are trying to use up anyway, and honestly I was ready to do something nice with Kevin after being so upset at him for the hair-cutting incident, so I readily agreed. (We eat a lot of pancakes in this house, by the way.) I did a good job of being patient and letting him help a lot with adding ingredients and mixing. He actually already knows a lot about cooking for a four-year-old. He's good at cracking eggs and mixing. He even surprised me by doing a great job flipping the pancakes without help and also transferring them to a plate all by himself. I am trying to remember to let him help me when he wants to, because he can actually be a good helper a lot of the time.

Check out his sweet smile. He was so excited to show Ryan the pancakes he had made as soon as Ryan got home.

emotional

Today I am analyzing my emotions. On Monday Kevin cut Heidi's hair. He went straight for the top and cut the hair in the center so that it was about an inch long. A few hours later when I had kind of forgiven him I was able to realize that it really was not that noticeable because her hair lies flat against her head, and I could still cover up that cut part by pulling the hair over on the side and using a clip.

Yes, I said could, not can.

Apparently he did not learn his lesson (he got a spanking from Dad and an hour of time out plus a stern lecture) because out of thin air he found another pair of scissors and cut a few more patches out today. I was so angry that I put them both straight to bed and then took the trash out so I could get away from them. I suspect that Heidi's hair cut is not so hideable anymore, although I didn't get a close look. I'm not sure if we're at mullet stage now or not. (Update: the shorn hair is cover-able if I part it on the other side, but it's going to be tricky for a while.)

I also found Kevin playing with a little music box that is special to me. My sister bought it for me at Disneyland because it has Beauty and the Beast on it and she knew I love Beauty and the Beast. Whenever he can get his hands on it he takes it apart and runs his fingers on the metal tines that make it play, and I hate it when he does that because I don't want them to break. But no matter how much I have told him not to, he still does it, and he will also run off with the other knick-knacks, which I hate because I have only kept the ones I love.

My emotional response is what is interesting to me. Yes, I am aware that it doesn't really make sense, but the emotions are real. I have been crying about it. I know it's just hair and it will grow back, but I love Heidi's hair and I enjoy spending a little time making it look nice sometimes. For her sake I don't want her to someday have pictures of a mullet to look back on. My initial response is to be hurt that Kevin did not have enough respect for me or Heidi to leave her hair alone. And now that he has done it a second time I am even more hurt because obviously on Monday we were not pleased with what he did, and yet he disregarded that and did it a second time. I know they are just things. I learned long ago that as a parent you can't get too attached to things because little fingers sometimes throw and rip and break. But I am still hurt that he doesn't respect my things and doesn't seem to care that I have already told him a million times not to take apart my music box.

The counterpoint to all of these emotions is my memory of my childhood. I can't remember if I ever cut my own hair or one of my sisters' hair when I was little, but my vague memories of what it felt like to be a little kid kind of give me an idea of what's going through his head. He's four years old. He doesn't get it yet. I remember my parents telling me not to do things and knowing I wasn't supposed to do them, but I did it anyway because I really wanted to and I didn't think it would matter that much, or that they would even notice.

It scares me, though. I desperately want my children to be respectful, considerate people, and when things like this happen I feel like I must not be doing my job; if I were just more strict, or more loving, or more in control, or spending more time with them, or doing things the right way (whatever that is), then they wouldn't ruin things. It makes me worry that if they act like this at home, they will also do it at school or at church to their teachers and friends.

It's hard to accept that maybe it's nobody's fault. Kids don't understand. I can't always be watching them like a hawk. If it's nobody's fault, maybe that means there's not much I can do about it. The scissors are in a locked cupboard now, but if it's not the scissors it will be something else. It means I have to wait it out and keep repeating myself. I know if I keep trying to teach them to do what is right, they will most likely figure out it eventually, but how in the world do I stay afloat until we get there? I know that over time things like this won't matter so much, but in the moment it can be so hard. And even though I get so frustrated with them sometimes, I would be devastated if I lost them.

It occurs to me that maybe this is how God feels about me sometimes, except he's a lot more patient than I am. I wonder if it's hard to see me struggling with the same weaknesses I had five years ago and backsliding so much. I wonder if he copes by remembering that if he keeps working with me it will get better, and someday I won't do those things anymore. And just as I would be devastated to lose my children, I know that God would weep if he lost me, or any of his children.