The Invisible Clock That Ticks

There are so many things in my life I take for granted.   There are things I use or take advantage of on an hourly basis that I don't even think about and yet if they were gone I'd notice it quickly and possibly miss it dearly.

For example, our heating units.   I don't think about them overly much, but if they were to stop working during this well-below freezing weather we're having, we'd not only notice it, we'd be sad and cold.    I'm grateful our heating systems work without any issues...now that I'm thinking about them.

Then let's take the clock in our bathroom.   I have no idea how many times I look at that clock.  It's positioned so it's easy to see from the bedroom and right in line with everything in the bathroom.   In the mornings when we're getting ready for school, I'm sure I must look at the clock many times.    If someone took it down for only a day, how many times would I miss it?

Last night I got in bed to go to sleep.   I heard something.   Something strange.   It was a ticking noise.   "Wait a minute," I thought, "that's the clock in the bathroom ticking."   I then thought, "I don't remember it ticking."   But that didn't make sense.  It needed to tick to tell the time correctly.   So that means it's been ticking every night and all day since it's been there.   And that means my mind completely ignores the sound.

Filtering.  Our brains do it so well, sometimes it surprises us.   I bring this up because children's brains haven't learned to filter yet.   You see this in how they notice everything; how they make connections; how they aren't in a hurry to get anywhere because they're seeing the world as it is now, not thinking about how they need to get in the car because we're going to be five minutes late to the birthday party.

But I digress in the most random of ways.    At any rate, I have a clock that ticks, that I hear tick every day, that I didn't know ticked.   Interesting.

The Big Boy Update:  My husband made ribs for dinner tonight and my parents joined us for the meal.   To make the ribs, he goes through a long process with lots of baking and basting.  We all agreed it was well worth it as we sat with sticky fingers eating our dinners.  The adults were discussing with the children what types of ice cream were available for those that were members of the clean plate club.    There was conversation about how you didn't have to eat the bones to qualify for the clean plate club.   Eventually we all were sitting in front of a bowl of ice cream.   My son looked at his bowl and said, "this ice cream doesn't have any bones in it."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Today my mother was watching the children.   She told my daughter she needed to go to the potty and was getting up to leave their bedroom.   My daughter said to her, "wait, we have a potty in here you can use," and directed my mother to their bathroom.   As my mother was getting ready to sit down on the toilet, my daughter said to her, "when you finish, you can put one of these on," and pointed to the basket of children's underpants sitting beside the toilet.   Then she looked thoughtful and said, "although now I think it's a little too small for you."

Fitness Update:  Two updates today.  First, five miles in twenty-three degree weather—chilly!   Second, I met my personal weight-loss goal from the first of the year today.   This was a challenge from my mother-in-law for any of our family who wanted to take her up on the challenge.  I had a smaller amount to lose, so it didn't take me that long to get there.   The challenge is to lose the weight and then keep it off until the end of the year.   I hear there is to be a prize.